There was nothing easy about Stedman Post 62’s 5-3 win over Sandhills Diamond Post 72 Friday night at Cape Fear High School.
Certainly not for Cape Fear ace Brandon Dees, who led the Colts to a 19-3 record and was 10-1 on the mound during the high school season, but threw 154 pitches in 7 2/3 innings in this one. Nor for Diamond left-hander Stuart Richardson who induced the 62ers to hit ground balls all night that often became laser shots on the rock-hard infield.
A Diamond squad reduced to 10 by graduation and holiday associated conflicts battled back from a 5-0 deficit to put the tying runs on base in the eighth inning and the tying run at the plate in the ninth.
With two out in the eighth, and Stuart Richardson on first base with Dees’ seventh walk, J.R. Klingenschmidt laced a double up the left-center field alley to put runners on second and third. When Dees walked Mike Messana and Brian Shinn to force in a run, Stedman coach Wendall Smith mercifully replaced Dees with Terry Sanford High School’s Chris Lekas.
“We usually don’t like to let them throw much over a hundred pitches,” said Smith of Dees, who struck out 14 and walked nine. “But you look at more than the pitch count. He felt good and he was throwing good — and we talked to him. He’s in great shape, so we let him go.”
Lukas walked Ben Richardson to force in another run, cutting the deficit to 5-2. But Ryan Scott, representing the lead run, grounded into a force out at second to end the inning.
With one out in the ninth, Anthony Perry sent chalk flying on a triple down the right field line. He scored on an infield error before Pete Van Camp hit into a force play and Lekas got Klingensmidt looking at a low third strike to end the game. Van Camp was the 15th base runner stranded by the Diamond in the game.
Carl Boykin, taking over the coaching reins for Roger Woolard whose wife gave birth to a baby girl earlier in the week, liked the fight of a squad that included only three starters from the previous games.
“The guys we had did the best they could do,” Boykin said. “In the eighth and ninth innings they could have folded up and gone home, but they didn’t give up. If the ball Robert (Thomas) hit up the middle goes through, before Perry’s triple, we might have tied the game up.”
Both teams, now 1-4, came into the game badly in need of a victory. The 62ers scored their first run in the third inning via a throwing error by third baseman Scott and an astro-turf type bouncer over third by Jeremy Egan. A leaping catch of a Jimmy Moore line drive with the bases loaded by second baseman Shinn saved further damage.
Scott received a facial on a hard grounder by Kramer Pritchard that went for a double to start a two-run Stedman fifth. They scored one in the sixth and another in the seventh on a home run by Dees. Meanwhile, the Diamond was 0-for-9 at bat with runners in scoring position while stranding 11 base runners through the seventh.
Richardson gave up three earned runs on eight hits and struck out five while walking three in seven innings. Scott faced three batters in the eighth while striking out two. A replacement infield committed five errors on the hard surface. The Diamond got four hits off Dees and one off Lekas.
There is a change in this week’s schedule. Tonight’s game at Hope Mills (South View High School) has been changed to Thursday at 7 p.m.
Sandhills 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 — 1 3 5 5
Stedman 0 0 1 0 2 1 1 0 — 5 8 1
S. Richardson, Scott (8) and B. Richardson; Dees, Lekas (8) and Miller; 2B –(D) S. Richardson, Klingenschmidt (ST) Pritchard; 3B- (D) Perry; HR- (ST) Dees; SB- Shinn 2, Messana, (ST) Pritchard, Egan; HB- (D) Messana, (ST) Miller; RBI- (D) Shinn, B. Richardson, S. Richardson, (ST) Egan 2, Dees, Moore; WP- Dees 1-0 LP- S. Richardson 0-2.
