RedWolves establish dominance at home

FLORENCE — Throughout the first half of the Coastal Plain League season, fans of the Florence RedWolves have entered and left American Legion Field the same way — happy.
They have a good reason. The RedWolves have started the season on fire, carrying a 15-4 record into Saturday night’s contest against Southern Division rival Columbia.
However, it is what the team has done at home that has fueled its white-hot start. Florence is 10-0 at home this season, outscoring its opponents by a combined score of 69-19.
“We do it for the fans. That’s why we’re here,” first baseman Cody Stinger said. “We’ve got a really good fan base here, and we try to give the fans our best every time we’re here.”
The streak nearly came to an abrupt end Thursday against Wilson. Trailing 4-3 with two outs in the bottom of the eighth inning, Stinger launched a two-run home run off Taylor Miller for thegame-winner in a 6-4 win.
RedWolves coach Wes Davis said his team’s dominance at Legion Field is a result of being mentally prepared at all times.
“We like to say that pressure is the result of a lack of preparation. When we’re at home, there’s no pressure,” he said. “(This team) gets it done in practice and they’re prepared at game time.
“We’re really proud of this streak, and I hope we can keep it going.”

Owls earn postseason honors
Forest City infielders Kevin Mahoney and Kevin Mailloux were honored with a couple of postseason awards for their collegiate season accomplishments.
The Canisius juniors were the clubhouse leaders for the Golden Griffins this season, who captured a school record 41 victories and the first regular season MAAC title since 1994. Both Mahoney and Mailloux were named ECAC All-Stars, while also receiving recognition from the American Baseball Coaches Association.
Mailloux, who also earned third-team all-America honors from the ABCA and all-MAAC first-team honors, broke a number of single-season program records by posting 77 hits, 56 runs scored, 53 RBI and 129 total bases. He also led the team with a .377 batting average and had 14 doubles, 12 home runs, a .632 slugging percentage and a .429 on-base percentage.
Mahoney had a career season with his .369 batting average, 12 home runs, 51 runs scored, 52 RBI and team-leading .665 slugging percentage. The third baseman earned ECAC Division I player of the week honors April 23 after hitting .556 with four home runs, seven runs scored, 11 RBIs and a 1.33 slugging percentage from April 14-20.
Mahoney is the program’s all-time leader in runs scored (135), hits (185) and RBI (125).
The New York native has racked up two Rawlings co-hitters of the week honors in his first two weeks in the CPL after posting a .397 batting average with 27 hits, 22 runs-batted-in and six homers in 17 games played.

Tape-measure blasts
Despite the fact that no player has homered to right field since the new wall was built at Legion Field, left field has held true to form as a launching pad for the long ball.
No Florence player has taken advantage of that fact more than Alec Lowery. The first baseman/designated hitter blasted two homers this week that went over 415 feet into the trees in left.
Gastonia first baseman Josh Collazo punished an Andre Benjamin pitch 405 feet into left for a solo homer in his team’s 18-2 loss to Florence Tuesday night.