Wildcats bite Foxes twice

It was déjà vu all over again for the Red Foxes’ baseball team Wednesday night as they hosted the district championship for the second straight year and fell twice to an opponent.
Lexington defeated Hartsville 5-2 in game one and 6-1 in game two.

Since Hartsville defeated James Island and Lexington once already, Lexington had to defeat Hartsville twice to advance to the AAAA Lower State Championship round. In 2008, Hartsville played host to Wando in the same situation and lost both games.

In game one, Hartsville's Hunter Privette took the mound and pitched well in a complete game effort. Privette gave up one run on three hits through seven innings.
The dominant statistics in game one, however, were errors and runners left on base.

Hartsville committed six errors in the game, four of which came in the first three innings.

After the Foxes held Lexington scoreless in the first inning, they scored a run of their own on a single by Brandon Beans in the bottom of the second and took their only lead of the game, 1-0.

Hartsville committed three errors in the second inning that led to three runs for Lexington, and the Wildcats held a 4-1 lead after two.

Both teams would only score one more run on the night as pitchers dominated the night.

Alex Brooks started for Lexington and struck out 10 Foxes in six innings of work.

The Foxes had opportunities, but nothing seemed to go right as they stranded 15 runners on base throughout the game.

Hartsville managed another run in the top of the seventh on a Dylan Usher sacrifice fly.

Seth Lowe led the Foxes at the plate with a 3-for-4 performance. Dylan Usher was 1-for-2, and Beans was also 1-for-2 and was hit by a pitch twice.

Cody Mincey took the mound for Hartsville in game two and faced Derrick Smith of Lexington.

Lexington scored two runs in the bottom of the first inning and took a lead it never relinquished.

The Wildcats used bunts to move runners in the second inning and scored another three runs to take a 5-0 lead after two innings.

Lexington scored another run in the third, and Hartsville scored its only run in the fifth on a sacrifice by Lowe.

Mincey gave up four earned runs on seven hits through four innings before giving way to John Wrenn. Wrenn gave up no runs on three hits in two innings of work.

At the plate, Usher led the Foxes in game two going 2-for-4 with a double. Beans finished both games going a combined 1-for-3 with two walks and was hit by a pitch twice.
Hartsville head coach Tony Gainey struggled to find the words after the game.

“We made it a lot further than anybody expected, but it still hurts,” he said. “It’s disappointing to end like this. It ended a lot sooner than it should have. It’s heartbreaking.”

Gainey said he was disappointed for the Foxes’ two starting seniors, Hunter Privette and Jent Jones. Jones was unable to play after sustaining an injury in a collision with rightfielder Alex Gray on Friday in Lexington.

“Nothing went right for us,” Gainey said. The coach did find comfort in the fact that Hartsville won its third straight region title, which is something not many gave them a chance to do at the beginning of the season.

The Foxes finished with a record of 17-10 and were 8-2 in region play. Hartsville was ranked number six in the final regular season rankings posted by the SC Baseball Coaches Association.