Post 1 cruises past Lake City in Legion playoffs

FLORENCE — When a baseball team wins by nearly three touchdowns, it’s not often the winning coach can find much to complain about.

But in Florence Post 1’s 21-3 win over Lake City Post 73 Monday night, Post 1 coach Derick Urquhart saw a couple areas in which his club needs work.

On defense, Post 1 committed three errors and also made some mental mistakes.

A misplayed fly ball by center fielder Michael Wilson and lapses on bunt coverage in the second inning led to two unearned runs for Lake City.

On the mound, left-hander Charlie Abbott was strong enough to get the job done, but was a tad wild and also had a balk.

None of that, of course, is catastrophic in a 21-3 win in the opening game of the second round of the playoffs. But make those same mistakes down the road against a tougher opponent and the outcome could be different.

“We messed up two bunt coverages back-to-back. We misplayed a fly ball,” Urquhart said. “Unfortunately, those things will happen, but it was bad that we strung them all together in one inning and let them get two runs out of it.”

In addition to the two unearned runs in the second, Post 1’s play in the fourth inning irked Urquhart.

After Abbott retired the first two Lake City batters he faced, Post 1 first baseman Spencer Jordan booted a ground ball off the bat of Reggie Weatherford. Abbott then balked Weatherford to second.

“Mental mistakes will make a coach as mad as anything, and a balk is a mental mistake. You can’t have those,” Urquhart said. “And the defensive errors? I know a couple balls were hit hard, but those are plays we make and that we need to be making.”

Abbott pitched the first five innings for Florence. He gave up five hits, the two unearned runs, walked two and struck out three.

“Charlie was effectively wild tonight. He had 92 pitches,” Urquhart said. “It was frustrating for him to get behind on batters, but he showed some maturity by battling back and getting out of it except for the second inning when we made mistakes behind him.”

While Post 1 was a little shaky on defense, their performance at the plate left Lake City pitchers a bit shaky.

Post 1 cranked out 18 hits, including 10 in a 10-run fifth inning.

The onslaught was such that all of Post 1’s starters got at least three at-bats and most of the subs got two at-bats.

Chandler Smetana was 4-for-5 with three doubles and seven RBI, while Abbott helped himself by going 2-for-4 with a three-run homer and an RBI single.

“We expect that out of Chandler in the three hole,” Urquhart said. “The guys in front of him were doing their jobs by getting on base, and he was doing his job by driving them in.

“If the opportunity is there to drive in a run, we expect him to drive in the run. He’s batting in the third spot for a reason and he came through tonight.”

Jordan will start on the mound for Post 1 in Game 2 of the best-of-5 series at Lake City tonight at 7.

“We were thinking Lake City was going to come ready to play,” Urquhart said. “I think (tonight) could be different. We told the guys that this was just Game 1. Tomorrow, it’s 0-0 again.”