Five-run fourth inning dooms HiToms
from Daniel Frey with HiToms Baseball
High Point/Thomasville, N.C. – The Asheboro Copperheads (21-9) broke the game open with a five spot in the fourth inning to roll past the High Point-Thomasville HiToms (19-11) 8-3 on Wednesday evening.
No scoring until the third inning when Kyle Smith drove in the first run on a fielder’s choice to the right side of the infield.
The HiToms once again wasted no time to answer with an RBI sacrifice flyout by David Fry to tie the game at one apiece after three innings.
In the top of the fourth, HiTom starting pitcher Jacob Norman (1-1) ran into some control problems and gave up a 2-RBI knock to Derek Perry to break the tie but the Copperheads weren’t done yet. Zach Duff lifted his first homer of a season, a three run blast over the left field wall to gain separation.
The first batter of the bottom of the fourth was Zac Almond and he responded with a solo shot opposite field for his sixth long ball of the season with the HiToms still trailing 6-2 after four innings.
Ivan Pelaez (1-0) in his Coastal Plain League debut tossed 5 2/3 innings with 5 strikeouts and only allowed 2 earned runs.
Reid Clements, Andrew Dill, Austin Reich logged innings out of the bullpen for the HiToms to limit the damage from the fourth inning on.
Asheboro added two more insurance runs in the top of the sixth and a RBI sac fly by Hunter Slater drove in the final run of the game in an 8-3 HiToms home loss.
For the only time this week the HiToms head out on the road tomorrow, July 7 to Lexington County to take on the Blowfish at 7 p.m.