’Wolves blast Blowfish

COLUMBIA — Baseball is all about adjustments, and Florence RedWolves coach Wes Davis was extremely proud of the ones his team made Wednesday.

A day after a one-run, eight-hit performance against Wilson, the RedWolves’ offense caught fire in a 15-0 rout of Columbia at Capital City Stadium.

Florence pounded out 15 hits, got shut-down pitching from its starter and bullpen and the defense was mistake-free.

The win puts Florence (13-12) 2 1/2 games behind Wilson, a 2-1 winner over Fayetteville, for first place in the Coastal Plain League South Division.

“After the way we’ve been up and down at the plate lately, I was very proud of the adjustments we were able to make tonight,” Davis said. “It was very nice to be solid in all three aspects of the games.”

Tyler Burnett and Austin Smetana led the charge for Florence. Burnett was 2-for-3 with three RBI while Smetana made the most of his two plate appearances with a walk, a run scored, and a three-run homer in the ninth.

“We had a lot of guys who might have been struggling a little come through tonight,” Davis said. “Austin had a crucial walk in the eighth inning and then got a good swing in the ninth.

“Burnett had a solid night along with (Sam) DiMatteo and (Taylor) Lewis. It’s exciting to see all those guys put in the extra time, make the adjustments and see it pay off.”

After scoring twice in the third inning, the RedWolves broke the game open in the fourth. Brad Raj singled, Stephen McCray doubled, Herman Petzold tripled and Taylor Lewis doubled to bring in three of
Florence’s four runs as the RedWolves took a 6-0 lead.

That was all starter Barrett Kleinknecht and the bullpen needed. Kleinknecht picked up his first win of the year, tossing six innings and allowing no runs on three hits with five strikeouts and two walks.

Todd Miller and Ali Williams then combined for three more scoreless innings.

“Barrett was solid for us once again, and we were able to keep his pitch count down,” Davis said. “Miller and Williams did a good job of coming in and really shutting the door. I couldn’t be happier with our pitching tonight.”

Leading 9-0 in the ninth inning, the RedWolves plated six more runs with the help of Smetana’s blast and Lewis’ two-run double.

Six RedWolves had multiple-hit games, and all but two starters collected a hit.

“You hope that we can build off of this going forward,” Davis said. “But tomorrow is another day, and as we’ve seen this week, things can change from game to game.”