WILSON — Up just 2-1 on the scoreboard, the Greenfield Knights put together a six-run second inning on Friday to take a commanding 8-1 before going on to win by a final score of 11-1 against the Harrells Chrisitan Academy Crusaders.
Harrells Christian sophomore Jesse Smith opened up the scoring in a big way against Greenfield when he crushed a home run over the left field fence. It didn’t take long for Greenfield to respond though, and they did so in a big way when, in the bottom of the inning with two outs, senior Quintin Blake crushed a two-run homer to give his team a 2-1 lead.
In the bottom of the second inning, things continued to go in the wrong direction for Harrells Christian as starting pitcher Reid Strickland started off the inning by walking three straight batters with two of them being hit by his pitches. With the bases loaded, Greenfield’s Clark Johnson hit an RBI single to knock in Garrison Wester and give his team a 3-1 lead. Strickland’s struggles on the mound continued as he walked the next two batters he faced, hitting one of them and giving up two runs to give the Knights a 5-1 lead.
With the game appearing to get out of reach, the Harrells Christian coaching staff decided to make a change, and they brought in sophomore Collin Cole to replace Strickland on the mound. The change did not have the desired effect though, and Cole immediately walked the first batter he faced to walk in yet another run and give Greenfield a 6-1 lead.
After the walk, Cole then earned the first out of the inning with a strikeout and also caused the second out of the inning when he forced Greenfield batter Simon Quinn to groundout into a fielder’s choice at second base. A run did score on the play though as Tristan Stancil came home from third base on the groundout which gave Greenfield a 7-1 lead.
Just when it seemed as if Harrells Christian was about to stop the bleeding, a throwing error from the catcher who was trying to throw out Simon Quinn on the basepaths resulted in Quintin Blake coming home to score for Greenfield. Quinn also tried to come home to score on the play, but he was tagged out at the plate to end the inning with Greenfield up 8-1.
Greenfield would go on to score two more runs in the fourth inning and one run in the fifth inning to trigger the 10-run mercy rule and come away with an 11-1 victory.
With the loss, Harrells Christian fell to 5-6 overall this season while Greenfield improved to 9-4 overall with the win.
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