Game Recap from Kingsmen Baseball
By Jerob Moon- Sports Information
CONCORD, NC- Thursday’s contest between the Piedmont Pride (21-7) and the Concord Athletics (10-23) had a revenge factor as the Pride won 11-2 on the road at Concord High School. The Pride avenged an embarrassing 10-1 road loss to the Athletics that took place back on June 28th. With the win the Pride remain only one and a half games out of first place in the SCBL.
“They handed it to us pretty good up here last time, so it’s good to come back and play better and hand it back to them a little bit. But any time we come off of a loss, it’s good to get a win,” Coach Joe Hudak said.
The Pride didn’t waste any time getting on the scoreboard. In the top of the first, Roury Glanton hit a two-run homerun over the centerfield fence to give the Pride an early 2-0 lead. Glanton now has 11 homeruns on the season, increasing his league leading total.
The Pride added a run in the second and third innings and built a comfortable lead for starter Tommy Guglielmello. Guglielmello went three and two-thirds innings, and struck out three batters. He used his curveball to perfection and kept the A’s batters off balance with a mix of different pitches.
The Pride weren’t done scoring runs, a five-run seventh inning blew the game open. Glanton added a two-run single, and a RBI double by Jake Wrighthighlighted the inning. There was more than enough run support for relievers, John Brocklebank, Caleb Murphy, and Tristan Helms. The Athletics scored three runs in the ninth but the game was far from over, the Pride won comfortably 11-3.
The Pride won’t play again until Monday, the team gets the weekend off thanks to the Southeastern Collegiate Prospect Showcase. And while the Pride is sending seven players to Kannapolis for the event, Coach Hudak is thankful to have a break for the team.
“We’ve been playing really well recently, and it’s going to be good for us to have some time off. We have some guys that are banged up a little bit. We’ll rest up and then have one more week of the regular season before the playoffs.”
For the players going to the Kannapolis Intimidators stadium for the weekend, it will be a special event for them to experience and they will face some good competition. All-Star teams from the Cal Ripken, Valley, Florida, and Sun Belt leagues will join the SCBL to play in a round robin style tournament on Saturday and Sunday.
Coach Hudak says this is a special event. “When you have five collegiate leagues all sending their all-star teams, it gives our guys a good chance to show how they stack up against other all-star teams and collegiate leagues. I think they are all excited about it.”
The festivities will kick off on Friday with a pro-style workout featuring all five all-star teams. Tournament play begins on Saturday with the SCBL All-Stars taking on the Valley Baseball League All-Stars at 1 pm.
