INDIAN LAND, S.C. — The Indian Land Warriors baseball team dropped their first two Region 3-4A games of the season at the worst possible time.
Indian Land lost back-to-back games to the Catawba Ridge Copperheads and also lost the season series to them falling on Wednesday, April 10, and Monday, April 8. Indian Land is now 13-7 overall on the season and 9-2 in region play.
The Warriors fell 4-0 in Wednesday’s game, getting four hits in the game as Catawba Ridge went up early 2-0 after the second inning. In the second inning, Britton Nash hit a two-run home run off starter Michael Doan to give the Copperheads the lead.
Doan pitched six innings allowing three runs on five hits, while walking two and striking out eight. While he didn’t pitch badly, Indian Land struggled to give him the run support he needed.
The Warriors got runners on base in the first three innings, but couldn’t get a run across. James Knoll got a double in the third inning for Indian Land’s first hit, but was left eventually stranded at third base.
In the fifth inning, Catawba Ridge scored off an RBI double from Winthrop commit Owen Noonan.
Indian Land got two runners on in the bottom of the fifth with a walk from Cooper Armstrong and a single from Issac Pena, but Pena was caught trying to steal second which hurt the Warriors chances of scoring.
Indian Land again threatened in the sixth inning, getting the bases loaded with no outs after a single by Alex Blanchette and walks to Emerson Rhodes and Cole Dombkowski, but Copperheads starter Peyton Dhein then struck out the next three batters killing the Warriors rally.
Catawba Ridge would add a run in the top of the seventh. And despite another Indian Land base runner with a single from Cole Gutmann in the bottom of the seventh, the Warriors would get shutout.
In the Monday game, Indian Land fell, 4-2, and played better as Blanchette went 2-4 and Rhodes went 3-4 as the Warriors scattered seven hits, but defensively made four errors giving runs to Catawba Ridge. Logan Sulli also went 2-3 in the losing effort for Indian Land in the first game for the series.
