Blease Hardy pitches East Clarendon to 5-0 baseball victory over Atlantic Collegiate
Wolverines put themselves in position to secure Region 7 No. 1 seed in AA state playoffs
Turbeville – Blease Hardy is getting back into pitching form for the East Clarendon High School baseball team, and it couldn’t have come at a better time.
The junior right-hander who had 12 victories the two previous seasons had his first extended outing of the season on Friday in the Wolverines’ most important game of the season to date. All Hardy did was throw 5-plus shutout innings and help EC to a 5-0 victory over Atlantic Collegiate Academy at Shad Hall Field.
“He’s been hurt (with shoulder issues),” said East Clarendon head coach Curtis Johnson of Hardy. “He threw live in a game for the first time on Monday (in a 12-2 win over Latta), threw 25 pitches. He came out and competed his tail off tonight.
“That’s the Blease that won eight games last year and as a freshman won four games. That’s the Blease Hardy we know and love.”
What made the game so important is the fact East Clarendon lost to the Armada 4-2 on Tuesday in Conway. Another ACA win would have in all likelihood given it the Region 7-AA championship and the No. 1 seed in the upcoming state playoffs.
However, the Wolverines, who are 16-7 overall, are 9-1 in region play while 20-3 Atlantic Collegiate is 8-1. EC has two games against Marion next week, while the Armada has two games against Kingstree and one against Lake City remaining. Should the teams finish tied for first, East Clarendon would get the No. 1 seed since it scored more runs in the two games.
Johnson was not surprised with the way his team bounced back following the tough loss earlier in the week.
“Our guys compete,” Johnson said. “They just competed their tails off. They bought in to what we’re trying to do. They believe they can win, and they just compete hard. I’m proud of them.
“They’re a resilient bunch. They think they’re pretty good. Practice was great the last two days, and they really put forth a lot of effort. I knew we were going to play well. You never know how baseball is going to be sometimes, but I thought we’d play well.”
Hardy scattered five hits while striking out four and walking two. He pitched into the sixth but ran into trouble before recording an out. Hard-throwing freshman left-hander Easton Donlon came on and pitched two shutout innings, allowing just one hit while striking out three.
“They threw a guy who threw strikes and he kept us off balance,” Atlantic Collegiate head coach Larry Prange said of Hardy. “We hit a couple of balls hard and they ran them down. It’s a really well-coached team over there and they do a good job.”
Senior Logan Newcomb took the loss. He worked five innings, giving up one run in the third and four in the fifth. He struck out four and walked three while allowing six hits. Junior Jaxson Rzemyk struck out the three batters he faced in the sixth..
Junior Braylon Hunt had two of the Wolverines’ hits. Senior Barnes McConnell, junior Kenley Sullivan, sophomore Gavin White and junior Crosby Timmons each had a hit.
White scored twice, while junior Evan Lee, McConnell and eighth-grader Pierson Kelly each scored a run. McConnell and Timmons each had a run batted in.
“We got the bunt game going,” Johnson said. “We tried to force them to make plays and we beat them.”
Senior leadoff hitter Cam Craft was 3-for-3 for ACA. The other two hits belonged to Newcomb and junior Terrance Blackmon.
“They had a great team win tonight,” Prange said. “They played as a team, we didn’t play as a team.
“We’ve had a good season. The kids play hard and today they just didn’t play well. They made plays in the end, we didn’t.”
