HARTSVILLE, S.C. – “Snake-bitten” is how Tony Gainey would have described Jackson Moore’s season at the plate thus far.
“His batting average wasn’t where he wanted it,” the Hartsville High baseball coach said. “He’s been hitting balls on the head right at people – people who have made diving plays, people who have made great plays.
“We told him, ‘Just keep doing what you’re doing.'”
Persistence and perseverance have paid off for the Red Foxes’ junior infielder during the last few games, and especially in Friday’s 4A state playoff elimination contest against South Florence at Jimmy White Park.
Moore’s bases-clearing, three-run double in the bottom of the fourth gave Hartsville plenty of cushion as Gainey’s squad stayed alive in the postseason with a 7-2 victory.
The Red Foxes (16-9) will take the field again Monday to host Wade Hampton after its victory over Lugoff-Elgin. South ends the year at 15-15 overall.
“We came out here…a little rough start to the first inning, but after that we came together, started hitting the ball, started getting runs in and that’s how you win a ballgame,” Moore said.
The Bruins actually took the early lead Friday behind three hits against HHS starter Cole Winburn. But the right-hander kept the damage to a minimum and escaped with just one run across.
He got out of another jam in the second inning and seemed to lock in from there – retiring 10 straight batters at one point before South added another run in the sixth.
Regardless, he went all seven frames and scattered seven hits with no walks and three strikeouts.
“Cole had a couple rough games between a couple of starts and he lost some of his confidence,” Gainey said. “But he’s found it. We rode him tonight…and he did a great job.”
Winburn got early run support, too. Hartsville plated three runs in the bottom of the second, highlighted by Jaden Atkinson’s two-run single as the Red Foxes took the lead and never looked back.
It was still 3-1 when Moore came through with his big hit to double HHS’ advantage.
“We were taking first pitch, and I was waiting,” Moore said. “We knew (SF’s Mason Coleman) had a pretty nice curveball, and I saw it starting up at me, so I sat on it and hit it where it needed to be hit.
“We managed to get three out of it.”
That was the biggest difference Friday evening as South was unable to come up with the big inning while Hartsville did, Bruins coach Kenny Gray said.
“First couple pitches we had two hits and had men on and we were able to capitalize and get one run out of it,” Gray said. “But we weren’t able to get a big inning. When you’re playing a team like Hartsville, they’re a very good baseball team, and when you leave runners on the board like that and you don’t get them in – that’s one of those things that’s going to hurt you later on down the road.”
Chandler Thompson finished with two hits for SFHS as did Wyatt Williams, who drove in the Bruins’ first run of the game. Nathan Gause collected the other RBI for South.
“I just felt like this team dealt with adversity pretty good this year,” Gray said of his squad. “…Overall I’m proud of this group. This group could have folded it up midway through the season and just went into the tank and they didn’t do that. They kept battling, kept going to practice, kept working hard and they started getting better – and we proved it.”
Atkinson, Moore and Web Barnes each had two hits to lead the Red Foxes. Brandon Anderson also picked up an RBI.
“We’ve just got to keep playing as a team, keep finding ways on base and (keep) scoring runs,” Moore said.
May 4, 2024 | Morning News (Florence, SC)
Author/Byline: Justin Driggers | Section: Baseball