Published Tuesday, May 06, 2008 3:03 PM
Updated Tuesday, May 06, 2008 3:04 PM

 

Summerville falls to Conway

Conway pitcher Colby Holmes turned in a masterful performance on the mound Monday to hand Summerville a 6-4 loss in the Lowerstate semi-finals.

The Tigers will now host the Lowerstate finals this weekend, where they will play the winner of Wednesday night’s game between Summerville and the winner of Monday’s Stratford/Wando game.

Holmes fanned 17 Green Wave batters in a complete-game victory to improve his record to 8-1. Eight of those strikeouts came in the first three innings. Summerville had better luck against the USC-bound pitcher in the late innings, but were already too far behind as the Conway batters had success early in the game.

“Colby has been good for us all year,” Conway coach Anthony Carroll said. “Any time we send him to the mound he gives us a good effort and we have a good chance to win. Also, I think the key to the game was getting up early. That took some pressure off us.”

Conway’s Ryne Hardwich reached on a single in the top of the first inning and Sport Rabun followed with a double. Bobby Watford followed by ripping a double down the third-base line to plate both base runners.

Holmes helped himself by hitting a solo homerun in the top of the fourth inning for a 3-0 Tiger lead. In the bottom of the frame, Zach Dibble put Summerville on the board by driving in courtesy runner Bruce Haynes with a single. Haynes had entered the game for Brett Wheeler, who reached on a walk.

Hardwich drove in two more runs for Conway with a single in the fifth inning. In the bottom half of the fifth, Summerville put two runners in scoring position with a hit by Tyler Fletcher and a double by Pat Dolan. Wheeler then plated Fletcher with a base hit for a 5-2 score.

The Tiger’s added a run in the sixth off a Jeff Casrey hit. Then in the bottom of the seventh, Wheeler hit a two-run homer that easily cleared the left-field fence and drove in Branden Millhouse.

“Holmes is one of the best pitchers I’ve seen in high school in a while,” Summerville coach Burt Bazzle said. “He has good velocity and a good breaking ball that kept us off balance. But we did score four runs and we had some other opportunities but we didn’t capitalize on them.”

Zack Yates was 2-for-3 at bat for Conway and Casrey was 2-for-4. For Summerville, Millhouse, Fletcher and Wheeler were all 2-for-4.