Patriots Close Series With Summerville Strong
Fans, Summerville catcher Shep Cadwell and Fort Dorchester’s Lee Lovelace watch as Lovelace’s sacrifice fly sails deep into the outfield during the fourth inning April 17.
By Roger Lee
Contributing Writer
Summerville - Fort Dorchester edged Summerville April 17 in the third and decisive game of a week-long baseball series.
With two base hits and as many sacrifice hits in the top of the fifth inning, the Patriots got the cushion they needed to leave Green Wave Park with a 4-2 win over their 5A Region 8 foe and rival. Luke Conroy opened the inning with a double. He moved to second on a sacrifice grounder by Brady Quirk and scored on a single from Nathan Clark.
Cannon Corder was hit by a pitch and Daniel Schenk singled to load the bases. After a change in pitcher for Summerville, Myles Dewese sent a fly ball into the outfield, allowing Clark to tag and score for the 4-2 Fort Dorchester lead.
Summerville left three base runners stranded the next two innings and another three stranded in the bottom of the seventh.
“Thane (Maness) has done a great job with Summerville,” said Fort Dorchester coach Jay Christmas. “It’s hard to come into Summerville and get a win so I’m happy for our guys. Summerville is always tough and they don’t give up.”
Early in the game the teams took turns giving runs away.
After Schenk doubled, he scored Fort Dorchester’s first run on an errant throw during a double play attempt. In the top of the fourth inning, the Patriots took a 2-1 lead when Corder scored off a baulk. Summerville answered in the bottom of the frame when Kayleb Pinckney scored on a wild pitch.
Fort Dorchester’s Alex Zapata relieved Banks Wickersham on the mound after Pinckney scored and only surrendered two hits until the top of the seventh inning. He got Summerville’s first two batters in the final inning to fly out, but then gave up hits to Shep Cadwell, Cooper Gaskins and Parker Holladay to load the bases.
“Zapata struggled some early in the season and his innings have been limited, but he has his command back,” Christmas said. “He closed Wednesday’s game out and threw seven pitches and got two outs. I’m proud of him. He’s our dog of the week.”
Southpaw Connor Baumgardner relieved Zapata and got the next batter to hit into a line-drive out to end the Green Wave threat.
“We don’t always play great, but for some reason at the end we always find ourselves in the game, making a comeback or at least attempting to make a comeback,” said Summerville coach Thane Maness. “We stayed in the game and that’s the thing I love about this team is they continue to do that. The baulk call was big. We also had other opportunities. We had a man on third with less than two outs and couldn’t get it done; then we tripped rounding third and didn’t score on that ball.”
Fort Dorchester won the first game of the series April 13 by a 6-3 score. Summerville was down 5-0 going into the seventh inning of the second game April 15, but the Green Wave rallied to claim an 8-7 win in North Charleston.
Fort Dorchester has a three-game series with region leader James Island next week. Summerville faces a region series against cross-town rival Ashley Ridge.
Rival Softball
The Summerville Softball team also hosted Fort Dorchester April 17.
The Green Wave edged the Patriots 2-1. Daphne Frady had the pitching win.
Summerville opened the scoring in the bottom of the second inning when Gracelyn Cantrell doubled to plate Summer Knight. The Green Wave added the game-winning run the next inning when Frady singled to plate Haylee Sexton.
The Patriots scored a run in the top of the fourth to keep pressure on the Summerville defense, but never managed to push the tying run across.
