McElveen’s bat and the arms of Perry and Taylor guide Darlington to the win
By Drake Horton, Contributing Writer
Darlington Post 13 wrapped up its week on a high note this past Friday night June 10th, defeating South Florence Gold 6-3 in the non-conference junior legion matchup.
The win, which is Darlington second in row and second overall, was really never as close as the score indicated.
South Florence led only once in the game, taking an early 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning, but Darlington responded strongly in the bottom half of the inning, scoring three runs and never looking back.
Eric McElveen got things started in the bottom of the first inning, hitting a triple to the left-center wall scoring Matthew DeMaurice, who had reached on a South Florence error just before.
“I just sat back on the ball, waited on it to get to me, waited on my pitch every time,” McElveen, who went 3-4 with two RBIs, said.
That was not the only error of the inning for South Florence and it was not the only error that Darlington capitalized on.
After walking Quay Gandy, putting two runners on for Post 13, Gold’s shortstop made his second error of the inning, sailing his throw way over the first baseman’s head allowing two more runs to score.
Darlington added two more runs in the next two innings, scoring one in the second with DeMaurice hitting a two-out RBI single and another in the third on Gandy’s RBI ground out which followed McElveen’s leadoff triple, his second of the game.
“Story of the night: Eric McElveen,” Darlington head coach Dennis Gearhart said. “He smoked two balls to the wall, triple, triple. His bat is finally starting to come around a little bit.”
Up 5-1 starting pitcher Nick Perry cruised, pitching four complete innings not allowing another run since the one in the first and then gave way to Keyshawn Taylor who pitched the three final innings.
“I thought Nick Perry, in his first start with us came out and worked some kinks out,” Gearhart said, speaking on his team’s performance on the mound. “I thought he was nervous early in the game, but you are going to get that with an eighth grader about to be ninth grader, it’s his first time pitching on this field. Keyshawn came in and pitched really well behind him.”
Post 13 added one more insurance run in the bottom of the fifth inning when Gandy scored as Jaques Mullins got in a run down between first and second, allowing Gandy to score before getting thrown out.
South Florence tried to get something going in the top of the seventh. Loading the bases with no outs, Taylor got back to back groundouts to third baseman Luke Flowers, who threw the lead runner out at home.
Flowers got a third straight ground ball hit his way and made the throw home looking to end the game, but the ball popped out of catcher J.T. Isgett’s mitt and two runs scored cutting the led to 6-3.
“We have to eliminate mental mistakes,” Gearhart, talking not just on that moment, but others, said. “It’s a learning process and that is why we are out here doing it, but if we eliminate mental mistakes then we have a chance to be in every ball game we play.”
That was as close as it would get, however, as Taylor got the next batter to fly out to center to end the game.
Darlington’s record is now 2-2 overall, 1-2 in the region.