Miscues doom Darlington from the start
Jaret Bryant takes his turn at the plate during a Friday night game against the Lugoff-Elgin Demons.
Photo by Drake Horton
By Drake Horton, Contributing Writer
On Friday the Darlington Falcons lost 10-0 to the Lugoff-Elgin Demons at home.
Looking at the box score one would more than likely make the assumption that the Demons are just that much better than the Falcons. If you watched the game, however, it was evident that these two teams are not as far apart as it looks.
Miscues, tough breaks, poor execution, that was the difference; it was not talent. These three things were all evident in the Demons’ five-run first inning.
The Falcons’ Chase Weatherford watches for his chance to steal.
Photo by Drake Horton
After Lugoff-Elgin’s first batter reached first base on an error by shortstop Quez Mullins, an errant throw on a pickoff attempt by starting pitcher Drake Adams allowed the Demons’ baserunner to advance to second.
With a runner already in scoring position and no outs, Adams got the next two batters out and it looked like Darlington was going to be unscathed by the opening two blunders.
The next groundball changed that idea, however, as it took a very late and awkward hop on Mullins, who was in position to make the play, allowing the ball to get to the outfield and the first run of the game to score.
A walk to the next batter put another runner in scoring position for the Demons and Lugoff-Elgin delivered once again with a RBI single to center field, increasing the lead to 2-0.
Controversy came up moments later as Adams looked to have got his first strikeout of the game, ending the inning. The home plate umpire ruled catcher interference, however, even though catcher Matthew Demaurice held on to ball and his mitt despite the bat allegedly hitting it full swing.
Despite an argument from Darlington head coach Dennis Gearhart, the Demons’ batter was awarded first base, loading the bases for Lugoff-Elgin.
On the very next pitch of the game, the Lugoff-Elgin batter blasted a bases clearing double to the right-field wall.
“It should have been a seven pitch inning; we should have been out of it,” Gearhart said. “We boot a ball, turn around on top of it, take a bad hop on one. There is no secret; the storyline tonight is that we didn’t play great defense. They made plays and we didn’t. I say it all the time, you can’t give good baseball teams extra opportunities and we did that tonight.”
Down 5-0 out of the gate, Adams and the Falcons defense began to find their groove, holding Lugoff-Elgin scoreless through the next four innings.
Then came the sixth inning, and another round of bad breaks and miscues from the defense that were costly.
After getting the first two Demons batters out, Adams looked like he had another one, two, three inning as he tagged out the third batter before he reached first base, but another controversial call, this time made by the field umpire, called the runner safe and extended the inning.
Following the call, Lugoff-Elgin got two more baserunners, the first coming from a single and the next coming from a walk. Still with two outs, and needing just one, Adams looked like he was out of the jam, getting the next batter to hit a lazy, shallow pop up right behind the shortstop.
Miscommunication between Mullins and center fielder Tabias Dixon, however, allowed for the ball to drop safely and two more runs scored increasing the Demons’ lead to 7-0.
As disheartening as that was, the next batter hit a pop up to third baseman Quay Gandy, who lost the ball in the lights, allowing it to drop safely and let two more runs score, ending Adams’ night.
“I though Drake pitched a great game, he gave up nine runs and none of them were earned,” Gearhart said. “He threw great, he pitched well, he pitched to contact, we just didn’t make the plays behind him and it is tough to win ball games that way. You can’t dig yourself a hole and try to fight out of it all the time.”
Lugoff-Elgin scored its final run of the game in the seventh inning.
Offensively, Darlington never was able to get much going.
“When you dig yourself a five-run hole in the first inning it makes it tougher to try to manufacture things because your outs become more and more valuable at that point,” Gearhart said.
The loss drops the Falcons overall record to 5-4 overall, 0-2 in the region and it extends Darlington’s losing streak to three games.
Weekly Recap
Darlington played two other games this week and had one postponed.
On Monday, March 13 the Falcons dropped a road contest to the Marlboro County Bulldogs by a score of 9-1.
That was followed up with another loss on the road on Tuesday, March 14, losing 15-10 to Lugoff-Elgin.
Wednesday’s game against the Lamar Silver Foxes was moved to Monday, March 20 in Lamar, due to cold weather.