Florence strands 15 runners in loss to Wilson

FLORENCE — Barrett Kleinknecht deserved better.

Not a pitcher by trade, Kleinknecht gave the Florence RedWolves eight stellar innings on the mound Wednesday night.

The RedWolves’ offense, though, left 15 runners on base, resulting in a 3-1 loss to the Wilson Tobs and no decision for Kleinknecht.

“Barrett was phenomenal. He did everything we could have asked him to do to keep us in the game,” said Florence coach Wes Davis. “That kid has a lot of heart. Never in your life will you have to question his effort. He’s going to go above and beyond anything you ask of him.

“He shut down a pretty good offense tonight and it’s frustrating that we couldn’t get him a win.”

In his eight innings, Kleinknecht gave up five hits, a run, walked two and struck out four.

Not bad for a guy better known for his team-leading bat and fielding prowess at short, second and third.

“I’m just competitive. No matter what I’m doing, I want to be better than the other guy,” said Kleinknecht, who leads the RedWolves with a .295 average but wasn’t in last night’s batting order. “Tonight, I was just telling myself, ‘These guys aren’t going to hit me. They’re going to have to hit my pitch.’”

Kleinknecht retired the last seven batters he faced, striking out two.He had thrown more than 100 pitches through the eight, though, and was lifted for David Haselden with the game tied 1-1.

Haselden (1-1) sat down the first batter he faced in the ninth before the Tobs pushed across two runs for the win.

Bobby Leeper’s single to center and steal of second got things started. After Haselden struck out Dale Cornstubble for the second out of the inning, Matt Faiman singled to left to score Leeper for a 2-1 lead.

Faiman, who moved up on the throw to the plate, then scored from second on an infield hit from Xavier Macklin to make it 3-1.

“Barrett didn’t want to give the ball up in the ninth. He wanted to go back out there,” Davis said. “We went with Haselden and he threw the ball well, too. Wilson just hit a couple balls barely out of the reach of our gloves, and there were a couple calls that didn’t go our way.”

While Kleinknecht would have loved to finish what he started, he agreed with Davis’ decision to go to the bullpen.

“That’s coach’s call. I back him a hundred percent,” Kleinknecht said. “I would have pitched 15 innings if he would have let me, but he was looking out for my arm and I respect that.

“He wasn’t going to risk my career for just one more inning. Any coach would have made that same decision.”

Florence loaded the bases in the bottom of the ninth, but left them loaded for the third time in the game.

Jason Sullivan (2-0) held Florence scoreless over the final 1 2/3 innings. He gave up a hit, walked two and struck out three.

Brad Raj was 3-for-5 with an RBI for the RedWolves, while Taylor Lewis was 2-for-4.

The loss drops Florence into a tie for first with Fayetteville in the CPL South. The RedWolves play at Fayetteville tonight at 7 and will host Columbia on Friday at 7:30 p.m.