Pioneers Stumble On The Road

Sumter, SC – SMC dropped a pair of Region X games at USC Sumter on Saturday, falling 9-8 and 9-3. The No. 11 Pioneers fell to 26-8 overall, 9-3 in Region X, while USC Sumter improved to 26-7, 12-2 in region play. 

In game one on Saturday, USC Sumter survived a Pioneer rally and won with a walk-off hit. The Fire Ants struck early, scoring one run in each of the first two innings off SMC starter Ben Carlson (Mauldin HS). The Pioneers answered in the fourth with a two-out, RBI double by Luke Tollison (Laurens Academy) to cut the lead to 2-1, but Sumter chased Carlson from the game with three runs of their own in the bottom of the frame.

Still down 5-1 in the sixth, the Pioneers mounted a furious comeback. Using five hits, three walks and a pair of catcher's interference calls, they put seven runs on the board to take their first lead of the game.

But the 8-5 lead dissolved quickly in the bottom of the seventh, as the home team plated four runs against the SMC relief corp, tying the game with a two-out, pinch hit double and winning it with a walk-off RBI single.  

Reliever Hunter Rice (Boiling Springs HS) took the loss for SMC, giving up two hits and two earned runs in 2/3 of an inning. Tollison and Reggie Weatherford (Lake City HS) each had a pair of hits and two RBI, while Travis Burnside (Laurens HS) had two hits and drove in one.  

In the second game of the series, USC Sumter put together another big inning late in the game to pull away from the visitors. Both teams plated a single run in the first and third, leaving the score at 2-2. Sumter tacked on two more in the fourth with two outs on a pair of hits and a key error, boosting them to a 4-2 lead.

A big sixth inning broke the game open for the home team, as they scored five times in the frame against the Pioneer bullpen to open up a 9-2 lead. SMC tallied a single run in the top of the seventh, but it was not enough, as they fell, 9-3.

Starter Jake Long (T.L. Hanna HS) suffered his first loss of the season, working five innings and surrendering seven hits and four runs. He walked one and struck out four.

Champ Rowland (Wade Hampton HS) went 3 for 3 with a double and Ben Boykin (Fort Mill HS) 2 for 3 with a double to lead the SMC offense.   

Spartanburg Methodist College has 14 intercollegiate teams that compete in Region X of the National Junior College Athletic Association, which includes colleges in the Carolinas, Virginia, and West Virginia.

The College is in its 100th academic year of providing a quality education to students in a Christian environment. More than 90 percent of SMC graduates continue their education at other institutions of higher learning.
 
For more information please contact athletic director Mark Perdue at (864) 587-4237.