Red Wolves Thrash Blowfish

Coach Tim Medlin was ejected for arguing a strike call

COLUMBIA- A complete and utter beatdown.

That can adequately describe what the Florence Red Wolves (13-12) gave the Columbia Blowfish (7-17) Wednesday night.

Three Red Wolves' pitchers combined for a shutout and the Florence bats rocked Columbia for sixteen hits in a 15-0 victory at Capital City Stadium.

Barrett Kleinknecht (1-0) pitched six scoreless innings, giving up just three hits and striking out five to pick up his first win. Patrick Sullivan (0-1) was rocked in his second consecutive start, giving up six runs on seven hits in 3+ innings.

The Red Wolves were led by Sam DiMatteo, who was 3-for-6 with three singles and two RBIs. Austin Smetana came off the bench to hit a three-run home run, and Herman Petzold added two more RBIs on three hits.

Florence scored two in the third inning. An RBI single by DiMatteo and a sacrifice fly by Kleinknecht got the Red Wolves off to a 2-0 lead.

Florence added four more in the fourth to chase Sullivan. An RBI double each by Stephen McCray and Tyler Burnett sandwiched around an RBI triple by Petzold led the way to a 6-0 lead.

Two more insurance runs came around in the seventh. Columbia's Brandon McCreery pegged two batters to load the bases with two outs and Burnett followed with a two-run double to make it 8-0. In the eighth, Smetana pinch hit and was hit by a pitch from Brandon Miller. The Francis Marion freshman came around to score on an errant throw from third baseman Jason Coker to give Florence a 9-0 lead.

Miller's ninth inning appearance was disastrous. The first seven Red Wolves' batters reached base, highlighted by a two-run double from Taylor Lewis and a three-run homer from Smetana to give Florence a 15-0 victory.

Cameron White and Richard Mounce both had two hits for Columbia.

Notes: Every Florence batter either drove in a run, or scored himself....The Blowfish were 0-for-4 with runners in scoring position, they are 3-for-22 (.136) in their last three games... Florence has outscored Columbia 32-4 at Capital City Stadium this season.... The Blowfish return to Fayetteville for a rematch at J.P. Riddle Stadium Thursday night at 7:05 pm.