Knights control playoff fate after blowing out Wilson

FLORENCE — Dale Sylvester’s first home run of the season gave the West Florence baseball team its first lead of the night Tuesday against Wilson.

His second homer, a grand slam, sent everyone home early and sealed a critical non-region win for the Knights.

In between, Chandler Smetana pitched five solid innings, allowing one run on just four hits as West run-ruled Wilson 14-1 in five innings.

With the win, West remains 6-0 in non-region play, and controls its own destiny for the final playoff spot in Region 6-4A. The Knights are a game ahead of South Florence, which has one non-region loss.

“These games are obviously all very critical,” West Florence coach Bob Kleinknecht said. “We have two games left (Ridge View and Spring Valley) and if we win those, we’re in the playoffs.

“We’re playing good ball right now, and we swung the bats pretty well tonight.”

The Knights finished with six extra base hits including Sylvester’s two homers.

After Sylvester’s second-inning solo shot put West 1-0, the Knights came back with a five-run third innings sparked by four doubles.

Landis Lane and Kelvin Burnette each drove in two runs during the innings as West took a 6-0 lead.

“Tonight was one of those situations where I don’t think we made a lot of errors, the other team just put the ball in play and got some big hits,” Wilson coach Rodney Barr said. “I can deal with losing a game like that more so than one where we beat ourselves.”

Wilson, which has locked up the No. 2 seed in Region 5-3A, has dropped back-to-back games by at least 10 runs. The Tigers lost 10-0 to South on Monday.

“Hopefully, we can get out all of our bad play this week before the playoffs start,” Barr said.

Wilson’s best scoring chance in the top of the fourth. A single, a hit batter and a walk loaded the bases with nobody out for the Tigers.

But Smetana settled down, striking out two of the next three batters he faced and allowed just one run to score on a fielder’s choice.

“Chandler threw strikes and had his curveball working early and he got it over for strikes,” Kleinknecht said. “He pitched well and we made the routine plays behind him.”

After adding three more runs in the bottom half of the inning, the Knights led 9-1.

A sacrifice fly in the fifth inning brought the Knights to within one run of ending the game and putting them one step closer to the playoffs.

With two outs and the bases loaded, Sylvester stepped to the plate and finished things off with one swing.

“I was just trying to hit the ball to get the run in,” Sylvester said. “I just got a good swing on it and it went out.

“I wasn’t really worried about hitting home runs, I’m just glad I’m hitting the ball, and so is the rest of the team.”

Sylvester finished 3-for-4 with six RBI to lead West. O’Neil Kennedy was 2-for-2 with a walk and an RBI and Keaton Lutcken had two hits.

Keyshawn Hunter picked up two the Tigers’ four hits, and took the loss on the mound. Hunter went 3 2/3 innings, allowing nine runs, seven earned, on eight hits while striking out four and walking four.
West Florence hosts Ridge View today at 7 p.m., while Wilson hosts South Florence at 1 p.m.