Lake View rolls to impressive 10-1 baseball victory over Green Sea Floyds

Green Sea – Veteran Lake View High School baseball head coach Kip Herlong said he and the Wild Gators are “still kind of feeling our way.”

Based on what it has done to date, Lake View is certainly moving in the right direction. Herlong's statement came after the Gators’ 10-2 victory over Green Sea Floyds on Friday at Trojan Field.

The victory improved LVHS to 11-2 on the season, but more importantly 5-1 in Region 6-Class A. GSF fell to 12-8 and 3-2.

Of course, Herlong, who led Lake View to the state championship series last year against Southside Christian School, is talking about the long-term development of the squad with his statement.

“Focus at the plate, recognizing pitches early, we're doing a better job of that,” said Herlong, who has been head coach at the Dillon County school for 24 years and led it to eight state titles. “Defensively we’re still working on being able to move people around and find the pieces, depending on who's pitching. We're figuring things out, but we're still a long way away, but I also think we’re where we need to be at this time..”

Lake View looked just fine against Green Sea Floyds, a team it beat just 3-2 earlier in the season in a home game. Lake View broke the game open with a 5-run third inning and finished with 13 hits.

That was more than enough backing for right-handed pitcher Kason Herlong. The coach’s son worked 6 2/3 innings, striking out 10 while walking three and scattering six hits. He took a shutout into the bottom of the sixth.

“We came out early, set the tone, scored runs in the first three innings,” said Coach Herlong. “Our defense played well behind Kason, and Kason pitched well. He pounded the zone as much as possible, and that helps the offense get comfortable and go about swinging the bats.”

And Kason Herlong is part of that offense as well, setting the tone from the leadoff spot. Herlong, who entered the game with a batting average hovering around .500, went 2-for-3 with two walks and three runs scored. He drew a walk from Trojans starting pitcher Dylan McDowell to open the game, moved up on a Braden Borders single and eventually scored on a Chris McGill sacrifice fly.

Herlong did the same in the third, starting the inning with a base hit. That was followed by a bunt single by Borders and RBI base hits by Luke Price and McGill to make it 4-0.

It looked like McDowell might get out of the inning without any further damage when he struck out the next two batters. However, DJ Hardee delivered a run-scoring single and that was followed by a 2-run double from Luke King to make it 7-0.

       “Their approaches are getting better,” Coach Herlong said. “Most of these kids have been with me a long time. We do it differently at Lake View. If they're even close to starting in seventh grade, we start them in seventh grade. We make them grow up quickly and mature fast.”

Lake View has four players batting over .400. Along with Herlong, McGill, Luke Price and Ian Capps are all hitting over .400. Two others are batting over .300.

McGill was 2-for-3 with a double and two RBI, giving him 33 for the season to go along with seven home runs. Luke Price was 2-for-4 with two runs batted in, while Hardee was 2-for-4 with an RBI. Bryce King came up in a pinch role in the top of the sixth and delivered a 2-run single to give the Gators a 10-0 lead.

“Those kids really protect each other well, and that's what you've got to have,” Coach Herlong said. “Each one is a complement to the other and, it helps even the other things out.”

LVHS was coming off a 3-1 loss to Latta on Tuesday, its first region defeat of the season. That’s what made Friday’s performance heartening.

“You’re going to have down nights, you're going to make mistakes. It's how you respond to it,” Coach Herlong said.

GSF head coach Bradley Strickland said it was definitely a down night for his squad.

“It was not good baseball,” Strickland said. “We didn't make the plays we needed to make. They swung the bats and we didn't. We haven't hit the ball all year. Every game that we've been in has been a low-scoring game except for a couple We just haven’t hit the ball well enough.”

Green Sea Floyds had just two hits through the first five innings, but managed to avoid falling by the 10-run mercy rule with a run in the sixth. McDowell led off with a single, moved to second on a walk to Colin Buffkin and scored on a single by Michael Callahan.

The Trojans scored in the seventh when Hayes Clark led off with a single. He moived to third on a 2-out single by Ryder Buffkin and scored on a wild pitch.

Preston Hill and Caden Rowall had the other base hits.

“We've got to go back to playing fundamental baseball,” Strickland said. “ We’ve got to continue working on and doing the small things.”

Lake View closes out region play this week and can wrap up the region title with a pair of wins. It plays at Lamar, winless in the region, on Tuesday before being at home against Hannah-Pamplico on Friday.

GSF plays host to Latta on Tuesday, at Lamar on Friday and at home against H-P on Wednesday, April 24.