The Mint Hill Junior Army team on Friday night defeated the Dallas American Legion Junior club 5-1 at Independence High School Baseball Stadium under the lights.
Mint Hill pitcher from QGHS John Orlowski dominated the Dallas team for five innings of work. The Dallas club scratched an unearned run in the second inning after a single and a balk by Orlowski called by the home plate umpire. He then struck out two of the next three batters and hit one batsman on an inside pitch. However, after two errors on the infield Dallas was able to take an early 1-0 lead. The final out came on a pop-out to third basemen Bryce Gorospe.
In the home fourth inning the Mint Hill club broke through to take a 3-1 lead. Alex Novak reached on an error and promptly stole second base, Jabe Wilhoit singled putting runners on first and third, then with Wilhoit moving on a hit and run the “Big O” John Orlowski lined a single into left center field driving in both Novak and Wilhoit for 2 RBI’s. Then Jacob Laplant knocked an infield hit, Kohl McConehy followed with another single driving in Orlowski for the third run while Laplant was out at home plate trying to score after the relay throw was botched to end the scoring.
In the bottom of the fifth inning Mint Hill’s Bryce Gorospe singled, Drew Roberts singled to center, Killian Wright smacked the third straight single for the RBI driving in Gorospe. Wright took second base on the throw into third trying to gun down Roberts. After Novak hit a fly into shallow left the runners held with one out. Then Jabe Wilhoit hit a sacrifice fly to score Roberts from third giving the Mint Hill squad a 5-1 lead after five innings.
John Orlowski the Mint Hill starting pitcher went five innings giving up no earned runs, he recorded six strikeouts, allowed only one base on balls, and scattered six hits for the night. Relief pitcher Jacob Beard took over for Mint Hill in the sixth inning. He faced five batters giving up two walks, however, was able to avoid any damage striking out one batter and getting two hitters to ground out third to first.
In the top of the seventh Beard gave up a double to the lead off batter into the left center field gap. Again, he was able to pitch out of a potential jam when he would proceed to strikeout the next two Dallas batters and end the game on a ground ball to second base. Therefore, Beard pitched two solid scoreless innings giving up no runs on one hit and allowed two walks with three strikeouts.
The Army Junior legion team will play again on Saturday June 10th at 1:00 pm against Shelby at home. The scheduled starting pitcher is Leo Hoffer for Mint Hill.
