MONDAY’S HIGH SCHOOL BASEBALL

FLORENCE — Hilton Head Island rallied from a 4-0 deficit to tie it in Monday’s first round of the SCHSL Class 4A lower-state playoffs. That left West Florence looking for answers.

Coach Josh Brown’s Knights found them with three runs in the fifth and six more in the sixth for a 13-5 victory. West’s next game is Wednesday at Lugoff-Elgin.

“We let them back in the game, and they had all the momentum going into that bottom half (of the fifth), but we answered the bell,” said Brown, whose team improved to 20-5. “We’ve done that several times this year. We put together some nice at-bats in that fifth inning, and that got us scoring again.”

Before that, West relief pitcher Ryan Coscetti had to make sure the Seahawks didn’t take a 5-4 lead in the top of the fifth. With two outs and a Hilton Head Island runner on second, Coscetti struck out Connor Wiendl to end the threat.

Then, with one out in the bottom half, West pulled back away. The first big hit was a Cooper Coleman double, and Coleman scored on a Jack Benson single that gave West the lead for good.

Two more runs scored on passed balls to give West a 7-4 lead.

“Those guys have hit all year; I have all the confidence in the world in those guys,” Brown said. “They did what they had been doing all year.”

The Knights took it step by step while accumulating those nine unanswered runs.

“Get runners on base and execute and get them over and score them one by one,” Coleman said.

After Benson’s RBI single, the momentum was back in West’s corner.

“It did a lot,” said Benson, who also doubled. “When we score a lot in one inning, that gets us going through the whole game. It’s momentum, and we do good after that.”

That momentum continued in the sixth with singles by Coscetti and Camp Keels (3 for 4) along with a bunt single from Carson Haynes to load the bases. The Knights scored on four more passed balls, and Keels scored on an error. During Benson’s double, West’s final run also scored on an error to make it 13-4.

The Knights built their 4-0 lead to start Monday’s game with three in the first and another in the second. Peyton Rogers hit an RBI single, and another scored when Coleman hit into a fielder’s choice. The third run scored on a passed ball.

A Haynes run-scoring single in the second then capped the Knights’ quick start.

Rogers, West’s starting pitcher, had a strong outing with 12 strikeouts in 4 2-3 innings. But Coscetti’s effort after replacing him was what impressed Brown.

“(Coscetti) was the key player of the game tonight,” Brown said. “Sometimes, he gets overlooked with the pitching staff that we have. But when he’s on, he’s as good as anybody else we’ve got. Since spring break, he has really thrown the ball well and he was the difference in the game tonight.”

schancey@florencenews.com