Darlington keeps on cruising with win over McBee
By Drake Horton
Contributing Writer
Darlington – The Darlington junior legion baseball team kept to its winning ways at home this past Wednesday, defeating McBee 10-0 in just six innings.
Up 9-0 going into the bottom of the sixth inning, Darlington ended the seven inning game one inning early when Darlington’s Garrett Knight reached on an error allowing the tenth run and final run to score.
Darlington’s offense was hitting on all cylinders against McBee scoring at least one run in every inning. It started off with three in the first, one in the second and third, two in the fourth and one each in both the fifth and sixth.
This type of performance has become more of the norm than the anomaly despite early thoughts before the season started that this could be a long season due to the youth on the team.
“I think the thing that I have been most please about is that we have had so many guys that have been able to contribute this summer,” Darlington head coach Dennis Gearhart said. “I was a little nervous going into it with how young of a team we were going to be, but we’ve had some guys really step it up. It’s been fun to watch.”
Campbell Outlaw started the scoring off for Darlington in the bottom of the first inning with a two-RBI single to center. Starting pitcher Jake Blackmon followed that up with a bloop single that dropped right between the first baseman and right fielder to score the third run of the inning.
In the second inning Quez Mullins got in on the action, driving in a run of his own with a single to left and Bryant Dickerson increased Darlington’s lead to 5-0 in the third with a RBI infield single.
In the fourth inning Chase Weatherford, who had struggled earlier, picked up a RBI with a sacrifice fly and Outlaw followed him up with his third RBI of the game. Mullins picked up his second RBI of the game in the fifth inning on a groundout.
Knight finished the game up in the sixth and while the bats of Darlington did a lot of talking, it was Blackmon’s pitching that kept McBee silent.
“The pitching has been great lately and I don’t think we had an error in the field tonight and did some timely hitting,” Gearhart said.
With the win Darlington improved to 9-2 overall.
Weekly Recap
Darlington was schedule to play Cheraw in a double header at home on Friday, but Cheraw forfeited both games and Marlboro County, who Darlington was going to play on the following Monday for a makeup game also forfeited.
The two games that were scheduled against Lamar were canceled as well.
Darlington plays West Florence at home on Tuesday, July 3 to determine who wins the region. Regardless of the outcome of the game Darlington will get to host a home playoff game.
Playoffs are scheduled to begin on July 9.
