Suddenly, that 0-5-1 start to the season is a distant memory. It’s funny how a 10-game win streak will serve as an eraser.
Receiving a dominant two-hit, 10-strikeout performance from Billy Robertson, Lugoff-Elgin needed less than five full innings to dispose of visiting Richland Northeast, 11-1, Tuesday night at Optimist Field.
The victory was the 10th in a row for the Demons who stayed perfect through five Region 5-4A outings. L-E opens a key two-game conference series tonight at A.C. Flora before the two sides play the second game of the two-game series Thursday in the West Wateree.
L-E head coach Frankie Ward said the team he trotted out to start the season in February bears little resemblance to that which he lists on the lineup card these days.
“We had some youth that has done a really good job of maturing,” he said. “I talked to this group at the beginning of the year and I’ve really felt like, for this group, maturity was going to be the big deal. We’ve had some young guys step up and a lot of our older guys are starting to play well, too.
“This group has a chance to do something pretty special. We talk about not getting ahead of ourselves; we try and take it day-by-day.”
The hosts spotted the visiting Cavaliers (1-3 in 5-4A) a run in the first as leadoff batter Jalen Scott reached on an error, stole second, took third on Jayson Nash’s fly ball to left and scored on a throwing error to try and cut Scott down at third.
From there, Robertson was spotless as the tall, right-hander went on to fan 10 of the final 13 outs of the night while not allowing a runner to advance beyond second base. Ward said Robertson is doing everything a mound ace is asked to do.
“Billy’s been that guy all year,” Ward said. “He’s a senior and he’s thrown well for us lately. That’s why he’s our first guy for region games.”
As for the first and only RNE run, Ward said his team needs to and was able to cover up those early game blemishes.
“Games like this can be trap games a lot of times. We have to do a better job in that first inning. We gave them a run that we shouldn’t have because of sloppy play,” he said. “I thought our guys responded at the plate. They gave us a lot of free passes, but we also hit a lot of barrels tonight.
“We had some guys get some big two-out hits and we had some guys take some good swings. Hopefully, that will carry over to tomorrow night (against RNE.)”
The Demons answered quickly by getting to Nash for five runs on three hits in the home portion of the first inning.
Watson Harvley got the Demon offense going by legging out a leadoff bunt for a single before stealing second. A.J. Jefferson followed by getting on via a wild pitch, third strike to put runners on the corners before Jefferson swiped second. A Jake Morris walk loaded the bases for Maverick Grigsby whose grounder to second forced Morris at the bag while Harvley scored the tying run from third while a hustling Jefferson never slowed coming around from second with what proved to be the winning run and a 2-1 L-E lead.
With Grigsby on second after stealing the bag, Nash issued a walk to Skiler Jackson to bring Logan Crain to the plate with one gone. Crain sent a deep drive over the head of a slipping Amari Smits in left field as both Grigsby and Jackson circled the bases for a 4-1 lead. Crain landed on second with a double and scored the fifth run on Austin Hewitt’s single to center.
The four-run cushion was more than Robertson would need, but he was staked to another run in the second when Jefferson reached on a one-out error and eventually scored on a passed ball after a wild pitch brought him to third base.
After Nash settled down to work a scoreless third, the Demons hung up a three-spot on the fourth.
Grigsby touched off the rally with a one-out single through the box and took both second and third on wild pitches. Jackson and Crain then drew consecutive free passes to load the bags for Preston Crawford whose two-run single to left made it 8-1. On the same play, on an overthrow to the infield, Nash overthrow the base in trying to get Crain at third which allowed the ninth Demon run to come home.
An inning later, the hosts put this one to bed early against RNE reliever Kendrick Phillips who issued a one-out walk to Jefferson in the fifth before Jefferson stole second, the Demons’ eighth swipe of the night. Morris followed by going the opposite way for a double to the fence in left. Jefferson scored the 10{sup}th{/sup} run on a wild pitch while Morris put the lead into double-digits on Grigsby’s one-out, walk off single to right.
Grigsby’s single was the seventh and final hit of the night for the hosts while Grigsby ended with a two-hit, three-RBI night. Crain and Crawford each had two RBI for the winners who were coming off a 3-0 week at the Mingo Bay Tournament along the Grand Strand the previous week.
RNE did not provide the same caliber of competition which L-E faced in their tourney stay and with the prospect of facing A.C. Flora on deck, Ward said his young team did a good job of not looking behind or ahead and staying in the moment.
“This group’s pretty grounded. They come out and go about their business every single day … that’s a credit to them,” he said. “We talk about it all the time that we don’t play (to the level) of our opponent, we just play ball. We control what we can control, which is us, and we played the game the way it’s supposed to be played.
“We talk to this group all the time about staying in the present. I’m just super-proud of them. They came out ready to play and it worked out for us tonight.”
