RedWolves play long ball in win over Wilson

FLORENCE — When washing away the stink of four errors in a loss, nothing is better than returning home to play the same team.

After a four-run defeat at Wilson Thursday night, Florence answered on Friday the best way possible — with the long ball. The RedWolves slammed three home runs on the way to hammering the Tobs, 12-1, at Legion Field.

“Our goal tonight was to play error-free baseball,” said Blake Walker, who went 3-for-3 to lead Florence’s 12-hit attack. “Our pitchers are playing so well, and we had to back them up with some key hits.”

“Guys up and down the lineup hit the ball,” Florence coach Wes Davis said. “They figured it out at the plate and put it together tonight.”

After a scoreless first inning, the second inning proved to be disastrous for Wilson’s Langford Stuber as Florence (10-3) sent nine men to the plate. After a Packy Elkins error allowed Alec Lowery to reach, the left-hander lost sight of the strike zone, walking Barrett Kleinknecht and Keon Graves to load the bases with one out.

When Stuber finally did throw a strike, Herman Petzold didn’t miss it. Petzold lined a bases-clearing double into the left-field corner to give Florence a 3-0 advantage.

Stuber’s next pitch was a strike as well. Unfortunately for the Princeton star, Jamie Wolczak deposited it over the wall in left for a two-run blast to cap a five-run outburst for the RedWolves. Florence led 5-0 after two innings.

Stuber (1-2) allowed five runs, four earned, on three hits. He struck out two and walked three.

One swing added to the RedWolves’ lead in the third inning. Lowery crushed a Paul Novicki offering an estimated 410 feet into the trees in left for a solo homer and a 6-0 advantage.

“I was looking for a pitch up. (Novicki) left one up and I put a good swing on it,” said Lowery, who finished 2-for-3 with two RBI. “I knew it was gone as soon as I hit it.
“I didn’t want to look at it because I didn’t want to get hit in my next at-bat.”

Rob Kumbatovic (2-1) was the beneficiary of the run support. The right-hander allowed one run on six hits in six innings en route to his second win over Wilson this season, fanning three with a walk.

The Tobs broke through off Kumbatovic in the top of the fifth. Nick Hogan singled home Zeke Blanton to cut the deficit to 6-1.

Hogan went 2-for-4 with an RBI to lead Wilson (6-6)

But Lowery got to Novicki again in the next frame. The Florence right fielder laced a double to right to plate Walker to push his team’s lead back to six runs at 7-1. Francis Marion’s Jared Barkdoll drove home two more runs with a single to right and the rout was on at 9-1.

Just as Wilson took advantage of Florence’s mistakes in its win Thursday night, the RedWolves did the same to the Tobs. Cam Freeman took a chopper from Graves and one-hopped his throw past first baseman Ryan Mantooth. Barkdoll scored on the Tobs’ second error of the game for a 10-1 lead.

Walczak capped the five-run fifth with an RBI fielder’s choice to give his team an 11-1 lead heading into the sixth inning.

Graves capped the scoring with a solo shot in the seventh, his first of the season.