Red Foxes win first tournament of season

The Hartsville Red Fox baseball team is off to a great start to the 2009 season after winning the first tournament of the season.

Hartsville played host to Camden, West Florence, South Florence and Darlington in baseball action last week.

The Foxes began the tournament against West Florence on Wednesday. Hartsville defeated the Knights 8-7.

JMac Easterling was the starting pitcher for the Foxes. He went three and one-third innings before giving way to John Wrenn. Wrenn picked up the win.

The Foxes took an 8-3 lead into the final inning, but gave up four runs in the seventh.

However, the Foxes had the bats rolling as they notched 12 hits as a team. Brandon Beans led the Foxes with three hits.

On Friday, the Foxes faced South Florence and defeated the Bruins 9-2.

Pitcher Will Adams picked up the win for the Foxes with Fred Henning coming on in relief. Hartsville head coach Tony Gainey was pleased with the pitching. “I was impressed with both pitchers and their abilities to throw strikes,” he said.

Again, the Foxes had double digits hit counts as they had 10 as a team. Dylan Usher led the team with a perfect 4-for-4 effort at the plate, including his lead off at bat in which he hit a home run.

The two wins pit Hartsville against Camden in the tournament championship on Saturday at Jimmy White Park.

The Foxes escaped with a 1-0 win thanks in part to a two-hit shutout pitched by Hunter Privette. “(That was a) great outing by the senior,” Gainey said. “We only had two hits as well, but we were able to play small ball and manufacture a run with a key hit and run play by Privette and a sacrifice fly by Seth Lowe. I hope we can carry these positives into the regular season.”

Hartsville faced Camden again Monday night in the first regular season game of the year. However, they fell 7-4.

Gainey said the team did well for most of the game but had one tough inning that cost them.

Beans took the mound for the Foxes. According to Gainey, Beans pitched well throughout the game except for one inning.

“We had one bad inning where nothing went right,” Gainey said.

Beans and Lowe led the Foxes at the plate, Gainey said.

Hartsville (0-1) will host Darlington tonight at 6:30 in the home opener.