Despite three crucial first-inning errors against Richland Friday night, Post 4 proved that the beginning of a game doesn’t always dictate its end.

Thanks to a clutch RBI single by Matt Arant with the bases loaded and two wild pitches, Orangeburg was able to overcome their miscues to take a 7-6 win and hand Post 6 their first loss of the season.

Richland used their aggressive baserunning to get on the board first. After Orangeburg starter Andrew Robinson issued a leadoff walk to Kyle Towles in the top of the first, the Post 4 defense committed two errors on the very next play allowing Towles to score Post 6’s first run of the game. Kurt Stoudenmire, who reached on the errors, was doubled in by Raymond Prince, making it a 2-0 game. Prince later scored on Orangeburg’s third error of the inning to give his team a 3-0 lead. Post 6 only had two hits in the inning.

“We started out in the first inning pretty shaky,” Leysath said. “We looked like the Bad News Bears.”

Richland (4-1) tacked on one more run with a hit-and-run single in the top of the second by Stoudenmire scoring starting pitcher Russell Gahagen, making it 4-0.

Orangeburg’s offense came alive in the bottom of the second. After a double and a single by Kyle Gallman and Trez Wienges, respectively, Gallman scored the first Post 4 run of the night on a wild pitch, making it a 4-1 game. Tyler Metts later singled in Wienges and Matt Arant, cutting the Post 6 lead down to one.

Richland responded in the top of the fifth with back-to-back RBI doubles to left field by Bud Jeter and David Houser in giving their team a 6-3 lead and forcing Leysath to replace Robinson with Korey Davis. Robinson threw 75 pitches, surrendered nine hits, walked three and struck out two in 4-2/3 innings.

Orangeburg (4-1) may have been down by three, but they had no plans of folding just yet. Randon Sandifer singled and advanced to second on a wild pitch to start off the top of the fifth. After moving over to third thanks to a sacrifice, the younger Sandifer would score on an infield single by his older brother Don Sandifer, making it 6-4 in favor of Richland. Gallman and Wienges were walked consecutively to load the bases by Gahagen before he was relieved by David Green. Following a strikeout, Matt Arant’s timely RBI single to left kept the inning alive and brought in Don Sandifer, making it a 6-5 game.

“I was just trying to think backside,” Arant said. “He gave me an outside pitch and I went with it.”

Green then uncorked two wild pitches, allowing Gallman and Wienges to score, giving Post 4 their first lead of the night.

With the game on the line in the ninth with a runner on first, Leysath called on Sandifer to close out the game. Sandifer only needed nine pitches as he struck out the first batter he saw and induced two groundouts to end the game.

“I thought all of their guys did a good job of pitching,” Richland head coach Ray Derrick said. “I think we just didn’t take advantage of taking an extra base or we would go around the base too far and somebody would pick us off underneath. They pitched well enough to win and they played better than we did.”

This is Post 4’s third straight win since losing at home to Newberry. However, a win streak doesn’t mean much to Leysath and his team as they prepare for another makeup game at 7 p.m. today against Columbia Northeast.

“The bottom line is you play one game at a time,” Leysath said, “and that’s what you worry about -- that one game. Yeah, if we win tomorrow night, we will have won four in a row. But we play one game, one inning, one out, one pitch at a time and that’s basically what I’ve tried to get across to these guys.”

T&D Sports Writer Emery Glover can be reached by e-mail at eglover@timesanddemocrat.com or by phone at 803-533-5532. Check out his blog, Cover 2, at www.thetandd.com.

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