West runs away from South in baseball victory

South Florence shortstop Tyler Cooper, right, fields the throw from the plate to tag out West Florence's Adam Sylvester (14) after Sylvester overran second base during the West Florence's game against the South Florence Bruins on Tuesday at West Florence High School.

By: | SCNow
Published: April 08, 2009

FLORENCE — With 17 runs and 11 hits to its credit, the West Florence offense was hard to overshadow Tuesday.

But starter Spencer Matthews found a way.

The Knights senior struck out eight batters and in five innings and held Region 6-4A rival South Florence hitless as West cruised to a 17-0 win.

The win pulls the Knights even with Carolina Forest for the final playoff spot in the region and gives them the season sweep over South.

“It was a really exciting feeling,” Matthews said of his performance. “I just made sure to hit my spots and throw strikes and let the rest take care of itself.”

“He really had good control,” West coach Bob Kleinknecht said. “He wasn’t throwing with a lot of velocity, but he hit his locations and threw strikes and picked up a big win for us.”

Matthews walked three batters and hit two more for his only blemishes of the game. Only twice did South advance runners to second base, and Matthews quickly doused any rally chances.

“Even after a walk or a bad at bat, you can’t let that affect you,” Matthews said. “You have to go after the next batter, and that’s how I approached it.”

The only real problem Matthews might have dealt with was rust from sitting on the bench between innings. The Knights’ offense sent at least nine men to the plate three times.

“They hit the ball extremely well,” South coach Kenny Gray said. “They were very opportunistic and when we threw the ball in there, they were able to turn on it and make something happen.”

Chandler Smetana, Landis Lane and Matt Connelly paced the Knights’ offense with three hits each. Smetana led off the game with a home run and he and Connelly both reached base in all four at bats and scored each time.

Lane drove in two runs for West.
The Knights broke the game open in the second inning. With West up 2-0 and the bases loaded, South starter Blake Miller walked in two runs before being pulled after an inning and a third.

O’Neal Kennedy followed two batters later with a two-run double as West built a 9-0 lead. Kennedy finished 2-for-4 with two doubles and three RBI.

Paul Pizzuti also had two hits for the Knights, including a two-run homer in the third inning that made it 12-0.

West travels to Wilson today for a 6:30 p.m. game while South Florence will compete in the Dillon spring break tournament next week.