Lamar shines in win over Darlington
A Lamar player takes a swing during a non-conference game against the Darlington Falcons Photos by Drake Horton
By Drake Horton, Contributing Writer
Darlington County had two of its high schools square off on the baseball diamond this past Monday, March 20th. For one it was a great game, for the other it was less than appealing.
In a non-conference matchup, the Lamar Silver Foxes dominated the Darlington Falcons 11-1 in just six innings at Lamar.
“We threw strikes and played defense and that is what we try to pride ourselves on,” Lamar Silver Foxes head coach Adam Windham said. “If we do those two things we feel like it is going to be hard to beat us and Rashard was excellent.”
Rashard Coleman dominated on the mound for the Silver Foxes, striking out 12 and giving up just one run, a homerun by Darlington’s Jake Jones in the first inning.
Darlington’s Jake Jones winds up for a pitch
The box score showed a lopsided matchup with the Silver Foxes out hitting the Falcons nine to two to go along with Darlington’s four errors on the field and Lamar’s none.
“Other than the home run in the first by Jones it was probably some of our worst baseball,” Darlington head coach, Dennis Gearhart, said. “Two hits, I think we struck out 12 or 13 times; can’t make plays in the field behind it, don’t throw the ball for strikes, don’t catch the ball when it’s hit to us, just overall a poor performance on our part. Hats off to Lamar, they did what they were supposed to do, there’s a reason why they are ranked in the state right now and there is a reason why we are on a four game skid; because we are playing bad baseball.”
Outside of Jones’ homer in the first inning, Darlington was never able to muster up any offense, getting only one runner as far as third base just once in the third inning.
Lamar tied the game up in the bottom of the second inning very unconventionally. With two outs and nobody on for the Silver Foxes, Daniel Galloway reached second after Darlington’s Tabias Dixon and Keshawn Taylor collided in left-center after failing to communicate on a fly ball.
That play seemed to change the complexion of the inning as Jones, who was pitching for Darlington, suddenly lost the strike zone. He hit the next three batters, including the first two on the first pitch, to bring in Lamar’s first run of the game.
The Silver Foxes took the lead in the bottom of the third off of Galloway’s groundout with the bases loaded, but a greedy Jadarius Mumford was thrown out at home on the same play to end the inning, ending the threat.
Lamar’s offense exploded in the fifth and sixth innings as the Silver Foxes scored three runs in the fifth and six in the sixth to end the game one inning early.
It was Darlington’s fourth straight loss.
Weekly Recap
It was an off week in region play for the Falcons, but they did have one more game, another non-conference matchup, this time against Hannah-Pamplico at home on Wednesday.
Darlington snapped its four-game losing streak, winning 6-0.
Silver Foxes split two other games this week
Lamar plays in one of the toughest regions in the whole state when it comes to baseball and that was evident this past week as it split its two games in the region.
In their first contest, the Silver Foxes lost a very close battle to Lewisville who, like Lamar, made it to the upper-state championship last year, by a score of 2-1 at home on Tuesday, March 21.
Lamar defeated Great Falls, however, on the road by a score of 7-0 this past Friday.
The Silver Foxes are currently 9-3 overall, 2-2 in the region.
