By CINDY CROSBY
The Colleton County Cougar varsity baseball team earned a 4-3 win over Region VII-AAAA opponent Hilton Head High School on Friday, April 1 to improve to 3-3 in region competition. Earlier in the week, Colleton Country dropped non-conference games versus Woodland High School (6-0) and Goose Creek High School (6-3).
Dakota Dandridge led things off on the mound for Colleton County, lasting four and a third innings, allowing five hits and three runs while striking out three and walking one. Cam Farnsworth entered in relief, allowing two hits, issuing two walks, and striking out three. Grayson Cromer led Colleton County, going 2-3 at the plate. Warren Hunter, Josh Caldwell, Trey Simmons and Bruce Carpenter each had a hit in the game.
“This was a huge win for us on the week and in region play,” said Coach Jermale Paige. “We needed to finish the week on a positive note after going 0-2 in the previous two games. It was huge that we swept Hilton Head in region play to keep us in striking distance in the region rankings. Dakota Dandridge threw the ball well, picking up the win for us. Cam Farnsworth has done a great job coming out the pen and that continued last night as he picked up the save. Throughout the ballgame, our defense turned two double plays that gave us a huge momentum shift. One was between Josh Caldwell and Dustin Hadwin up the middle with the bases loaded, and another was an unassisted double from JC Poe.”
Against Woodland High School on March 28, Colleton County had trouble generating runs in the 6-0 shutout. Gabe Wolfe earned the start and went on to surrender four runs on seven hits over five innings, striking out two and walking one. Cohen Crosby and Josh Caldwell entered the game in relief, both throwing one inning. Cohen Crosby went 3-3 at the plate. Warren Hunter, Caldwell and Preston Breland had a hit each.
In the loss to Goose Creek High School on March 30, the Cougars fell behind early and could not recover in the 6-3 loss. Warren Hunter was on the mound for Colleton County and surrendered one run on three hits over four and two-thirds innings, striking out seven. Bruce Carpenter and JC Poe entered the game as relief, throwing one and one-third innings and one inning respectively. Grayson Cromer went 3-for-4 at the plate to lead Colleton County. Caldwell, Farnsworth, Wolfe, Trey Simmons, and Palmer Thomas had a hit-a-piece.
Colleton County was schedule to travel to Bluffton High School on April 4 for the first of a two-game series against the Region VII Bobcats.
