Blowfish capitalize on early HiTom mistakes
Courtesy of Daniel Frey with the HiToms
Lexington, S.C. – Costly errors early on set the tone for the High Point-Thomasville HiToms (3-3) in a 12-1 road loss to the Lexington County Blowfish (5-1) on Tuesday night.
Just like most games this season, the HiToms struck first with an RBI knock by Zac Almond. His eighth RBI of the season made it 1-0.
The success wouldn’t carry into the bottom of the first when a Drew Frederic fielding error at second kept the inning alive. The Blowfish would make it count with a 2-RBI single by Brett Auckland. Next batter, Clint Carr followed suit an RBI single of his own. The two out magic continued for Lexington County when David Newcomer threw the ball away to first. Lexington County eased into the game with a 4-1 lead after one.
Same story in the bottom of the second for HPT, the second scoring spree started with an RBI single up the middle by Adam Sasser. Auckland delivered another base hit to bring in a run, ending the day for HiTom starting pitcher Stevn Bower. Andrew Dill came in for long relief and surrendered the seventh run of the game on a sac-fly by Carr. The HiToms had their work cut out for them trailing 7-1 after the two innings.
Lexington County tacked on three more runs in the bottom of the fourth extending the Blowfish lead to 10-1. From this point on, the HiToms looked to chip away but never could, stranding 10 runners on seven hits.
Dill get a good job limiting the damage going 4 2/3 innings, striking out three batters and allowing three runs. Dill’s teammate at Anderson, Ryan Owens followed him for two innings of relief work setting four hitters down on strikes but letting up two more runs in the bottom of the eighth inning.
Zach Kolodziejski (1-0) was the winning pitcher going five innings, allowing five hits and striking out three batters. The slow start from Bower (0-1) saddled him with the loss. The win was the fifth in a row for the Blowfish after an opening night loss in extra innings at Gastonia.
The HiToms return home on Wednesday, June 8 against the Forest City Owls at 7 p.m. at Historic Finch Field.