DALZELL NEWS
DALZELL NEWS : LEAGUE IV CHAMPIONS
Dalzell defeats Hilton Head and moves on to Second Round of Playoffs vs. Sumter P15's
By PATRICK ENZOR
Item Sports Writer
penzor@theitem.comDALZELL — Charlie Taylor has been around some bad times for the Dalzell-Shaw Post 175 American Legion baseball program. Well, Jets, welcome to the good times.
Taylor's 1-hitter lifted Post 175 to an 8-0 victory over the Hilton Head Lowcountry Heat Wednesday at Thomas Sumter Academy's General Field to clinch the first-round series in the state playoffs — the first playoff series win in Post 175 history.
The Jets will play former longtime League III foe Sumter in a best-of-5 series starting Monday. The Heat finish the season 8-11.
"It feels pretty good," said Taylor, a left-handed rising sophomore at Florence-Darlington Technical College. "I had to go out there and throw strikes, but I didn't know how I would feel coming into the game. Once I got to the third inning, I felt pretty good."
Wednesday's win was just another milestone accomplished this season by head coach Preston McDonald's squad. Admittedly, he put extra emphasis on the first-round series because once you are in the second round, you still get a second chance if you lose the second-round series.
"We've had a great year so far and we knew the first series was the biggest series," said McDonald. "Once you win the first series, either you win your series or you can win the play-in game. The guys came out and played well all three games and did a good job."
Dalzell won Game 2 23-10 Tuesday in Hilton Head and Lowcountry Heat assistant coach Evan Christian sure would have liked to have saved some of those hits for Wednesday. Taylor would have none of that, however, as he fanned 12 batters and carried a no-hitter into the seventh inning.
"I am sure that (Tuesday's game) took a lot out of us," said Christian. "We knew coming up here that it would be tough. It wasn't our week. That kid (Taylor) was real good and kept us off balance all night. He just dominated us."
Post 175 got on the board in the first when Tyler Boyd doubled off Heat starter Creighton Quinn and moved to third on a wild pitch. Adam Windham followed with a single up the middle to plate Boyd.
The Heat looked to answer in the top of the second with runners on second and third with one out, but Taylor got Quinn swinging at strike three and Jets third baseman Jayvon Sanders robbed Jerahmey Sorenson of a hit with a diving stop and throw to first to end the inning.
That was the Heat's best chance against Taylor, who stranded just two more runners the rest of the game.
"He pitched great," said McDonald. "You couldn't ask for anything more from him. His curveball was really working tonight and he gave us more than what we asked for. It was a definitely a turnaround from last night, giving up 10 runs to shutting them out tonight. He pitched great tonight and we will need more from him next week."
Dalzell put up another run in the second when Quintin Norman came across on a 2-out error by Heat third baseman Denton Kerr. Still, the Jets had trouble figuring out Quinn until he began to tire in the fifth.
Sanders led off the bottom of the fifth with a single and stole second before Taylor popped up on the infield and Tiquan Griffin drew a walk. Brad Barwick then came up with an RBI single to score Sanders to make it 3-0 and Scott Ward lined a single past a diving JW Wilkerson at second base for two more runs to make it 5-0.
Christian stuck with Quinn in the sixth and couldn't get him out fast enough before more damage was done. Windham led off with a bunt single and Tyler Jackson launched a home run over the wall in left-centerfield for a 7-0 lead. Jayvon Sanders then doubled and scored when Heat centerfielder Jesse Powell couldn't hold on to a fly ball in deep centerfield for the game's final run.
Patrick Lawson broke up the no-hitter to lead off the seventh inning. Wilkerson also looked to have a hit in the eighth when the ball dropped in front of Windham in rightfield, but Windham fired a shot to first to retire Wilkerson.
"I was hoping for a no-hitter, but I'll take a 1-hitter," smiled Taylor.
Sanders led the Jets with a 3-for-4 effort. Boyd, Windham, Jackson and Barwick each added two hits.
CHAMPIONS CORNER
DALZELL SHAW BASEBALL
DALZELL SHAW POST 175 STATS
Pitching Stats
| |||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | # | Player | W | L | ERA | G | GS | CG | SV | IP | H | R | ER | HR | BB | K | HBP |
| 2 | 9 | Taylor, Charlie | 3 | 0 | 1.64 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 11.00 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 12 | 0 |
| 3 | 1 | Strickland, Weston | 0 | 1 | 15.00 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 6.00 | 15 | 11 | 10 | 2 | 5 | 6 | 0 |
| 4 | 17 | Blackwell, Jonathan | 1 | 0 | 3.17 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5.67 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 9 | 0 |
| 5 | 4 | Baker, Dusty | 3 | 1 | 1.72 | 6 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 31.33 | 20 | 10 | 6 | 0 | 8 | 22 | 1 |
| 6 | 5 | Streett, Justin | 1 | 0 | 3.38 | 6 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 16.00 | 17 | 6 | 6 | 1 | 16 | 23 | 1 |
| 7 | 22 | Ward, Scott | 3 | 0 | 1.65 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 27.33 | 21 | 5 | 5 | 1 | 7 | 21 | 2 |
| 8 | 14 | Windham, Adam | 2 | 0 | 0.00 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 9.33 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 9 | 1 |
| 9 | 11 | Boyd, Tyler | 0 | 0 | 4.50 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2.00 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 10 | 10 | Griffin, Tiquan | 0 | 0 | 9.00 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1.00 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| 11 | 7 | Jackson, Tyler | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3.00 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 |
| 12 | Totals | 13 | 2 | 2.64 | 15 | 15 | 3 | 4 | 112.66 | 88 | 41 | 33 | 4 | 48 | 105 | 9 |
Batting Stats
1 # Player AVG. G AB R H TB 2B 3B HR RBI SB BB HBP K 2 17 Blackwell, Jonathan 0.346 7 26 9 9 10 3 0 0 2 0 4 1 4 3 14 Windham, Adam 0.372 12 44 6 16 21 3 0 0 7 0 5 2 5 4 7 Jackson, Tyler 0.333 12 42 13 15 24 4 0 2 11 2 12 0 4 5 9 Taylor, Charlie 0.438 14 50 15 21 33 4 0 3 8 2 7 1 15 6 12 Sanders, Jayvon 0.500 12 46 17 23 44 3 0 6 20 2 8 0 5 7 10 Griffin, Tiquan 0.283 14 49 15 13 20 3 1 1 9 9 7 1 11 8 22 Ward, Scott 0.447 12 41 8 18 18 2 0 0 13 2 1 1 3 9 20 Byrd, Gary 0.293 13 41 2 12 17 2 0 1 8 0 3 2 5 10 16 Norman, Quentin 0.250 10 24 2 6 7 1 0 0 4 2 4 0 5 11 4 Baker, Dusty 0.278 13 20 3 6 10 1 0 1 3 1 4 1 3 12 2 Barwick, Brad 0.303 12 36 5 11 14 3 0 0 1 1 4 1 7 13 15 Smith, Mason 0.500 5 8 3 4 5 1 0 0 1 1 3 0 2 14 21 Armstrong, Chris 0.000 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 15 11 Boyd, Tyler 0.367 7 30 8 11 12 1 0 0 3 1 3 0 2 16 1 Strickland, Weston 0.000 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 17 5 Streett, Justin 0.000 5 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 18 18 King, Chad 0.000 4 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 2 19 Totals 0.357 14 462 107 165 236 31 1 14 90 23 67 10 71
Jets to host game 1 vs. Sumter P15's
By DENNIS BRUNSON
Item Sports Editor
dennisb@theitem.com
Talk about your irony.
In the same season in which the Dalzell-Shaw Post 175 American Legion baseball team left Riley Park after sharing it for 10 seasons with the Sumter P-15's, Dalzell will have the homefield advantage in its best-of-5 second-round state playoff series with Sumter after winning a coin toss Thursday.
The coin toss was needed because both teams were league champions — Sumter the League III winner and Dalzell the League IV winner. By gaining the homefield advantage, the Jets will play host to Game 1, which is scheduled for Monday at 7:30 p.m. at Thomas Sumter Academy's General Field. They will also play host to Game 3 on Wednesday and, if necessary, Game 5 on Friday. Game 2 will be played Tuesday at Riley Park as will Game 4 if it is needed.
Jets head coach Preston McDonald knows what it's like to play in Riley Park, having played for the P-15's and head coach Wallie Jones from 2001-03. That's why he is happy the Jets are going to have three games at home if needed.
"Being in Riley Park against Sumter, there's no other atmosphere in South Carolina like that," said McDonald, who has led the Jets to a 19-5 record after going just 1-21 last year in his first season as head coach. "Sumter just has a huge advantage, getting to play at Riley Park with the Sumter fans. It's tough to go into Riley and beat Sumter. That's why I'm happy we have the homefield advantage."
Sumter head coach Wallie Jones said the fact that Sumter could have to play three games at General Field when a year ago all the games would have been played at Riley Park doesn't bother him.
"It really doesn't," said Jones, whose team is 21-1 on the season and the 2-time defending state champion. "We've played on fields with grass and fields with no grass, big parks and small parks, fields with lights and fields with no lights. As long as they have three bases and a home plate, it doesn't matter to us where we play."
Because of the large crowds expected for the games and the limited amount of seating around the home plate section of General Field, some adjustments will be made for the series. There will be two gates in which to enter — the normal one used leading into the student parking area at TSA and the gate normally used for entrance into TSA football games, which is beyond the outfield fence.
As far as seating goes, the football stands in the outfield will be open and temporary bleachers will be placed behind the outfield fences as well as down the base lines. Fans will also be allowed to bring in their own chairs to sit behind the outfield fences or along the base lines.
Parking will be available in the field across S.C. Highway 441 from Thomas Sumter that the school uses for football parking.
McDonald said he wouldn't like the idea of playing the entire series at Riley Park for the convenience of its 2,000 seats.
"That takes away every possible advantage that we would have," McDonald said. "They would be playing where they are used to playing, and they would be comfortable. That would take the advantage away from us."
Dalzell left Riley Park this season after Post 15 added a Junior American Legion team. Assistant City Manager for Public Services Al Harris said talk about Post 175 leaving Riley Park started a couple of years ago and Post 175 received a letter prior to to the 2006 season that it was going to take place. He said when Post 175 began playing at Riley Park in 1997, the contract stated it was a "temporary" agreement.
Harris said it is difficult to maintain the playing surface at Riley Park with a large number of teams using it.
"Everybody wants the field looking plush, but it's tough to keep it looking pretty when you have several teams using it," Harris said.