Orangeburg Post 4 head coach Frank Leysath knew Monday’s game against Lexington was going to be a dangerous one.

Lexington entered the contest with only one win against Orangeburg, who dropped three straight dating back to their 12-inning marathon last week.

But thanks to some timely hitting and a couple of wild pitches in the bottom of the eighth inning, Orangeburg snappped their losing streak with a 9-5 win over Post 7.

Freddie Martino got things going for Post 4 with a 1-out double to right. Following a walk issued to Tyler Metts, Dillon Way came to the plate hoping to turn his luck around.

“i struggled at the plate tonight and I did not have quality at-bats,” Way said. “When I got up there with runners in scoring position, I knew what I had to do.”

Way’s double to left brought in the speedy Martino to give Orangeburg a 6-5 lead. Randon Sandifer was then walked intentionally to load the bases in hopes of turning an inning ending double play. Instead, Don Sandifer was walked allowing Metts to score to make it 7-5. Way and Randon Sandifer would each score on a wild pitch to tack on Orangeburg’s final two runs.

However, things didn’t start off all that well for Post 4. Orangeburg pitcher Robert McCurry threw an average of 24 pitches during each of his four innings of work. Add two errors and two hits to that and Lexington could be found ahead with an early 3-0 lead.

“I give Lexington credit,” Leysath said. “They were very patient at the plate. They fouled off a lot of pitches and he had to throw a lot of pitches.”

The lead shifted back and forth until the eighth inning when Post 4 ralled to score four runs giving them their largest lead in days.

“The biggest thing is we played together as a group tonight,” Leysath said. “We didn’t have but two errors and those happened in the second inning. We seemed to have gotten that out of the way and we didn’t make the mental errors that we made (Sunday) night against Chapin-Irmo. We made two errors up there, but the mental errors were what hurt us in that game.”

The win improves Post 4’s league record to 6-4 while dropping Lexington to 1-7 in league play. With their next three games on the road, Leysath hopes this win will help his team gain some confidence and get back on the right track.

“We won’t see this place again until a week from this coming Wednesday,” Leysath said. “The only thing that I’d like to think that might be in our favor is that we play three ball games each week. Hopefully, we can make it through with the pitching we’ve got.”

 

You must be logged in to comment.