RedWolves’ bats silent when needed most

FLORENCE — Via a 4-3 loss to the Wilson Tobs on Monday night, the Florence RedWolves lost any chance of winning the Coastal Plain League’s South Division second half championship.

And while winning that championship was a team goal, the RedWolves should be more concerned with the way they lost their regular season finale.

For what has become countless times this summer, Florence failed to get a clutch hit when it needed it most.

The RedWolves put runners at second and third with no outs in the ninth, then had the bases loaded with one out but couldn’t push the tying run home.

When Taylor Lewis grounded into a third-to-home-to-first double play to end the game, RedWolves coach Wes Davis talked a familiar refrain.

“Our pitching staff has been great for us all year,” Davis said. “We’ve been leading the league in ERA all summer. Those guys give us a shot every night.

“We just have to be better offensively.”

With the RedWolves set to open the playoffs at Outer Banks on Thursday, the continued lack of clutch hitting is especially troubling.

Lose that game and the RedWolves are eliminated. Win and they advance to a best-of-3 series against a to-be-determined opponent on Saturday, Sunday and Monday.

Florence and Outer Banks, which won the North Division first-half title, did not play during the regular season.

“Every team in the playoffs is throwing their No. 1 pitcher on Thursday,” Davis said. “You’re going to have to go out and score runs, and our issue this summer has been coming up with the big hit.

“We’ve been one hit away in probably 20 of our 25 losses. If we can start getting that hit, I think we have as good a shot as anybody to make a run at the championship.”

Wilson took a 1-0 lead in the first inning on a delayed steal of home by Bobby Leeper and a 2-0 lead in the second on an RBI single from Aaron Watkins.

Austin Smetana pulled Florence within 2-1 with his third home run of the summer in the third.

Florence tied it 2-2 in the sixth when Sam DiMatteo walked, took second on catcher’s interference, stole third and scored on a throwing error on the play.

A two-run homer from Matt Johns in the seventh pushed Wilson to a 4-2 lead before Florence made it 4-3 in the eighth on David Masters’ first homer of the summer.

Myckie Lugbauer and Barrett Kleinknecht led off the RedWolves’ ninth with back-to-back singles before moving to second and third on a passed ball.

After Patrick Dolan flew out to shallow center, Herman Petzold was walked intentionally to load the bases and set up the game-ending double play.