Despite the fact that temperatures dipped into the 40s Tuesday night, the Hartsville Red Foxes had hot bats as they tallied 11 hits against Sumter in varsity baseball action.
The Foxes defeated the Gamecocks 9-5.
James Easterling took the hill for the Foxes and gave up five runs through five innings of work.
The Foxes used another big day at the plate to put the Gamecocks on their heels.
Jacob Cole, Dylan Usher, Jent Jones and Seth Lowe each went 2-for-3 on the night for Hartsville.
In the bottom half of the first, Jones led off for Hartsville. He battled through nine pitched before drawing a walk. In fact, Hartsville forced Sumter pitcher Tyler Smith to throw more than 70 pitches in the first three innings.
The two teams were tied at one after two innings.
Sumter then scored two runs in the top of the third to take a 3-1 advantage.
Then the Foxes heated up.
Hartsville exploded for six runs in the bottom half of the third to take a lead they never gave up.
Sumter managed one run in the fourth and one in the top of the fifth, but Hartsville still lead 7-5.
In the bottom half of the fifth frame, Cole reached base on an error and advanced to second on a passed ball. Jones singled to right field and scored Cole to give Hartsville an 8-5 lead. Then Usher hit a stand up double and scored Jones to give Hartsville a four-run lead.
Cody Mincey came in for Hartsville to start the sixth inning. He gave up two hits, but held Sumter scoreless for the remainder.
Hartsville head coach Tony Gainey was in awe of the hitting performance after the game. “I don’t know,” he said when asked his reaction to the effective hitting. “We’ve done that against good pitching. But we got the base hits when we needed them.”
Gainey said the Foxes kept pressure on Sumter all night long, and he was proud. “I’m more proud of them tonight than I have been all year,” he said. “That’s the number five team in the state, and we took it to them. That’s huge.”
The coach said Hartsville battled at the plate all night long and made very good decisions. Gainey also said Mincey did a fine job in relief of Easterling. “He just sat back and waited for his time,” Gainey said.
The win creates a three-way tie for first place in Region VI AAAA. Hartsville, Conway and Sumter all have two region losses.
The Foxes will take a weeklong break and will return to action on Wednesday, April 15, at 7:30 p.m. when they face Gaffney on day one of the Southeastern Baseball Classic.
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