Falcons play Hartsville closer, but still come up short
By Drake Horton, Contributing Writer
The Darlington Falcons lost to the Hartsville Red Foxes 3-1 this past Friday and while a loss, it was a completely different story than the game played earlier in the week.
After playing one of their worst games of the season, the Falcons turned around and played one of their better games of the season, despite the outcome, showing everybody that Darlington has the talent to compete with anybody, including the region champion Red Foxes.
“We threw a lot more pitches than what we wanted to tonight, we fell behind in some counts, but we battled through it, had some great plays defensively, squared some balls up offensively,” Darlington head coach Dennis Gearhart said. “The difference was, we didn’t string hits and walks together like they did. But overall I thought it was one of the best games we’ve played in several weeks. So if you take anything out of a loss, which they are always tough to swallow, we played better baseball.”
Anthony Hopkins was stellar on the mound for the Falcons keeping the Red Foxes offense out of rhythm, but while Hopkins showed off his skills, Hartsville’s Cal Brunson was equally as good, never letting Darlington put together anything substantial at the plate.
Hartsville finally got something going offensively in the fifth inning, breaking up a scoreless scoreboard, scoring three runs.
With just one out in the bottom of the fifth inning, and one run already in, Gearhart decided to go the bullpen, bringing in Gage Weatherford. After getting the first batter to pop out, Hartsville made two of the biggest plays of the game, executing a double steal that was followed by a two-RBI single by Steve Joyner.
The Falcons showed resolve, however, in the top of the sixth loading the bases with no outs. But, as has been the case for most of the season, Darlington was unable to deliver scoring only one run, which came on a walk to Quay Gandy.
It was Darlington’s third straight loss, but with the playoffs already set the game had no bearing for the Falcons outside of pride.
For the Red Foxes, though, there was some significance to the win. Winners of five straight region titles, Hartsville extended its region win streak to 38 games with its last region loss coming to the Falcons back in 2013.
“We take some bumps in the non-region, but we play a good tough schedule and that’s a lot to do with it, just keeping yourself ready and the guys focus more for the region games,” Hartsville head coach Tony Gainey said.
With Spring Break this week and playoffs set to begin next week Darlington has one last game, a home makeup game against Wilson on Thursday, where the Falcons will celebrate senior night while Hartsville hosts the Southeastern Baseball Classic.
Weekly Recap
Darlington played the Lamar Silver Foxes at home this past Wednesday, losing 3-0.