The Union County baseball team wasn’t going down without a fight on Friday night.
The Jackets entered into the battle with Fort Mill in the catbird’s seat, coming off a win over BHP on Thursday night, while Fort Mill had the luxury of a four day rest and would have to be defeated twice to be denied the Upperstate Championship. Union County touched up Fort Mill’s ace pitcher, Andrew Tomasovich, for nine hits, handing him his first loss of the season, 4-2, to force a second game but pitching became an issue and controversial calls proved costly as Union County fell, 8-3.
In game one, the lefthander, Josh Simpson, worked from the mound, keeping Fort Mill off balance. With a sturdy defense behind him, Simpson had a no-hitter going up until the fifth inning where Fort Mill collected two. Diving plays and chased down balls courtesy of Dylan Rogers, Recus Hughes and Will Palmer helped Simpson keep Fort Mill from doing much damage.
Meanwhile, the Jackets’ bats were hot and Union County put up a run in the first inning when Devontae Glenn doubled and scored on a passed ball. The Jackets received another run in the second when Dustin Payne smacked an RBI single for the early 2-0 lead.
The big sticks of Simpson and Cal Arnold produced two more in the fifth with RBI doubles.
Fort Mill earned a run in the bottom of the inning and threatened to score again with the bases loaded on one out but a fly ball to right field was reeled in by Hughes who made a quick relay to Rogers at first as Fort Mill sent the runner at third. Rogers gunned down the runner and catcher Arnold stood his ground at home plate for the double play to end the rally.
Fort Mill went on to add a run in the sixth inning, but Union County kept them at bay to record the 4-2 win that led to the championship game.
After earning only three hits over the course of seven innings, the Fort Mill bats came to life in game two, using two hits for one run in the first inning and breaking the game open in the third with an RBI single and two RBI doubles before Jake Walton replaced the ace, Rogers, on the mound. Fort Mill tacked on another run off of two hits before Walton ended the inning with a strikeout.
Down 6-0 in the bottom of the third, Union County cut the margin in half before a debatable call at home plate left the tying run stranded on first base.
Mark Jeter led off with an infield single and Glenn reached with a single of his own. Walton drew a walk to load the bases for Simpson. Simpson cleared the bags with a double to deep center field, closing the gap to 6-3. Payne was hit by a pitch and Hughes collected a hit to short left with two outs. Keamond Eison was at the plate when yet another questionable call by the home plate umpire brought an uproar from the Union County bench. The ruling, which could have been the difference maker, stood, sending a frustrated Jackets team back into the field.
After two scoreless innings, Fort Mill added a run off a passed ball and a called timeout during the Union County pitcher’s wind up, the third of the night, sent a furious Petty back out of the dugout. But after a heated argument about the safety of his pitchers, Petty was restricted to the dugout for the remainder of the game and before the Jackets could get out of the inning, Fort Mill added another run for an 8-3 lead.
With two at bats left, the Jackets pushed on. Jeter singled in the bottom of the inning but was left on and Walton and Simpson each drew walks in the bottom of the seventh before Fort Mill put it away, taking the Upperstate title and sending a discouraged Union County team back home empty handed.
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