S.C. AMERICAN BASEBALL SUMMER LEAGUE - Bats power Lexington to victory over Sumter in season opener

Post 7 to face Chapin Newberry as part of baseball doubleheader Thursday at Segra Park.

THOMAS GRANT JR.
chroniclesports@yahoo.com
Posted 6/24/20

Lexington Post 7 came out swinging in its S.C. American Baseball Summer League opener Wednesday at Riley Park.

Pounding out 15 hits, 4 by Gray Collegiate’s Turner Thackston, Lexington …

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S.C. AMERICAN BASEBALL SUMMER LEAGUE - Bats power Lexington to victory over Sumter in season opener

Post 7 to face Chapin Newberry as part of baseball doubleheader Thursday at Segra Park.

Posted

Lexington Post 7 came out swinging in its S.C. American Baseball Summer League opener Wednesday at Riley Park.

Pounding out 15 hits, 4 by Gray Collegiate’s Turner Thackston, Lexington pulled out a 14-10 victory over Sumter Post 15. 

Josh Turner drove in 4 runs and University of South Carolina signee David Cromer had 3 RBI as Lexington capitalized off 10 errors by winless Sumter (0-2). 

Lexington (1-0) took a 5-0 lead in the top 1st. After back-to-back 1-out singles by Gilbert’s Travis Elliott, who went 3-4, and Clemson signee Ricky Williams, Cromer cleared the bases with a double.

William Chastain followed with a single and later scored on a fielding error on a groundball hit by Thackston. Turner added a 2-run single off Dustin Kennedy to close out the rally.

Sumter answered in the bottom half of the inning by sending 13 players to the plate, resulting in 7 runs. Kennedy singled home a run, S.B. Ducom had a RBI fielder’s choice and Josh Burns drew an RBI walk all against starter Payton Dawkins. 

It was 1 of 12 walks issued in the inning by 3 Lexington pitchers, 3 each to Jackson Hoshour and Cody Windham. 

Dawkins was replaced with 1 out in the inning by Noah Davis. The Chapin High product gave up an RBI sacrifice fly to Brandon Arnold and a game-tying RBI walk to Hoshour. 

Trey Yates singled for the 2nd time in the inning, this time driving in 2 runs to put Sumter ahead. 

Davis settled down and finished with 5 strikeouts on 102 pitches in 4 ⅔ innings for the win.

Lexington quickly regained the lead at 13-7 in the top 2nd. It capitalized off 5 Post 15 errors as part of a 8-run rally which featured a 2-run double by Turner, a 2-run single by Williams and a RBI single from Newberry signee Cam Ferrell. 

An RBI single by Kennedy brought Sumter to within 13-8 in the Bottom 3rd. Lexington earned another run capitalizing off 2 more Post 15 errors for its final runs.

Sumter scored 2 runs off a throwing error by Ferrell in the bottom 5th. Lexington’s Elijah Ogden relieved Davis and threw 2 scoreless innings to close out the win. 

Lexington Post 7 will open Midlands’ division play at 6:05 pm Thursday against Chapin/Newberry at Segra Park. It’s the 1st of 2 meetings between the 2 teams at the home of the Columbia Fireflies. 

A junior contest between Sumter and Lexington (Navy) will take place at 3 pm. 

Tickets are $6 and fans are encouraged to wear masks and practice social distancing at the ballpark.

In other S.C. American Summer Baseball action, West Columbia’s game against Camden Post 17 was rained out. No decision has been made on rescheduling the contest.

Lexington Cromer, Elliott

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