Darlington shut out Knights in just five innings
Photos by Drake Horton
By Drake Horton, Contributing Writer
It was a quick and easy game for the Darlington Falcons this past Tuesday, April 5th, but it was still just as important as any game.
In only five innings, the Falcons crushed the Crestwood Knights 15-0, improving their record to 7-10 overall, but more importantly 4-1 in the region, ensuring that all of Darlington’s season goals are still intact.
“I think we have great baseball team,” Darlington head coach Dennis Gearhart said after the game. “I said it at the beginning of the year and I’ll say it again ‘we can compete with anybody that we step out on the field against, but we got to take care of us,’.”
Up 6-0 after three innings, Darlington unloaded on Crestwood in the fourth inning, scoring nine runs on nine hits, including six in a row to start the bottom half of the inning.
“We put the ball in play; I thought we did a good job of that,” Gearhart said on his team’s performance. “Defensively, Brycen threw strikes; I think we gave up one walk which is key. You can’t give baseball teams free runners and free outs and that is something we have really focused on.”
But while the fourth inning was by far the best for the Falcons, Darlington scored in every inning.
Darlington jumped on the board in the first inning when pitcher Brycen Brown hit a single to center field scoring Garrett Revell.
The Falcons scored three more in the second and two more in the third.
While Darlington’s offense was impressive on all fronts from hitting with runners in scoring position to making productive outs when it counted, its pitching was just as good.
For the entire game, Brown was on point as was the Falcons defense holding the Knights to a shutout. He finished the game with five strikeouts.
Recap
Darlington went 1-1 in its other two games of the week, but found itself on the right side of which game to win, dropping the non-conference to Lamar this past Monday, April 4, but defeating Crestwood for a second straight time on Friday.
Darlington 1, Lamar 4
Against the Silver Foxes, the game was tied at one going into the third inning when Lamar went up for good, scoring two runs going up 3-1.
Lamar added one more run in the fourth in route to its 4-1 victory.
Darlington 14, Crestwood 1
The game against Crestwood was bit of a different story, however. Just like the game earlier in the week, the Knights were no contest for the Falcons and despite being in a different venue, it was to no avail.
Darlington won the game in five innings just like it did in the other game of the week. The only difference this time is Crestwood was able to score one run. The Falcons won 14-1.
The Falcons overall record is 8-10 overall, 5-1 in the region as Darlington heads into an all-important two game stretch against the Hartsville Red Foxes.
