Kleinknecht's two homers lift 'Wolves past Sharks

FLORENCE — With a little help from his friends — one old, one new — Barrett Kleinknecht has his groove back.

After seeing his average dip well below .300 in recent weeks, Kleinknecht had an inspiring conversation with an old College of Charleston teammate last week.

Since then, Kleinknecht has been on a tear. On Friday night, he belted two home runs and drove in all three Florence runs in a 3-1 Coastal Plain League win over the Wilmington Sharks.

That outburst gives Kleinknecht a .429 average for the week with four homers and six RBI. He now has his season average back up to .273 with a team-leading six homers and 27 RBI.

“One of my buddies (Ben Lasater) I played with during my first year at Charleston plays for the Greensboro Grasshoppers (in the Class A South Atlantic League),” Kleinknecht said. “He called to see how I was doing and I had a long talk with him.

“He said, ‘Man, you just have to go pitch by pitch. It doesn’t matter how hard you work, you’re going to keep going through this funk if you keep putting pressure on yourself and don’t make the adjustments at the plate.’ After that, I’ve felt better about things. It’s turning around. It’s a lot more fun when you’re doing well.”

While Kleinknecht has leaned on the advice from an old friend in Lasater, he also leaned on some encouraging words from a new friend — RedWolves bat boy Evan Turbeville — last night.

Prior to tying the game 1-1 with a line-drive homer to left in the bottom of the fourth, Kleinknecht got a fist tap from Turbeville behind the plate.

“Before I hit the first home run, (Turbeville) goes, ‘You’re going to hit the ball hard this time,’ and I was like, ‘that’s what I’m talking about,’ Kleinknecht said.

In the eighth, Turbeville was on his way back to the dugout after retrieving the bat from the previous hitter, and Kleinknecht stopped him on the way to the plate.

“I said, ‘You better come over here and give me some more (dap)’ and he did it again,” said Kleinknecht, who then cleared the left-field wall with a two-run shot to give the RedWolves a 3-1 lead. “We need to take that kid on the road.”

Right-hander David Haselden (3-3) wrapped up a complete-game victory by setting down the Sharks in order in the ninth, striking out the last two.

“I was going back out for the ninth inning regardless, but (Kleinknecht’s homer in the eighth) made things that much better,” said Haselden, who gave up five hits, walked one and struck out 10.

With the game tied 1-1 and two out in the top of the eighth, Haselden worked out of a jam with Sharks on first and second and Wilmington’s top power threat, Adam Eggemeyer, at the plate.

After a lengthy at-bat, Eggemeyer — who has hit four of a team-high five homers off Florence pitching — went down on a broken-bat pop out to third.

“I was trying not to make a mistake, obviously. He’s one of their best hitters,” Haselden said. “I was trying not to get too much of the plate with something he could hit.”

Before Eggemeyer dug in at the plate, RedWolves coach Wes Davis met with Haselden and catcher David Masters on the mound.

“I was just checking on David,” Davis said. “He had already gotten Eggemeyer out three times and I just wanted to ask him what he wanted to do against him in that at-bat.

“David Haselden is a very smart kid. He and David Masters had the right plan before I got out there. I was real proud of those guys.”

Preston Shuey was 2-for-3 for Florence. Brad Raj was 2-for-4 with a double, and Masters had a double in three at-bats.

Florence is now 7-2 in the CPL’s second half and leads the South Division by a game over the Wilson Tobs.

The RedWolves travel to Forest City today and Asheboro on Sunday. They’re off on Monday and will host Wilson on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m.