By Mac Banks – mbanks@comporium.net
http://www.fortmilltimes.com/2010/07/01/1168975/stingers-are-still-buzzing-around.html

FORT MILL –
After winning seven in a row, the Carolina Stingers have dropped four of their last five to end up at 12-12 on the season.

Two of the Stingers’ most recent losses show their frivolity at the plate and on the mound. The team was swept recently by the Statesville Owls, falling 1-0 and 12-2 last Saturday.

In the two games, Carolina made four errors and had just four hits while giving up 18 hits and 13 runs.

“It was brutal,” said Stingers head coach Ryan Bown. “I thought our approach and focus wasn’t very good.”

Statesville scored the winning run in the top of the eighth inning in game one on a throwing error by Stingers catcher Greg Lawson of Catawba College, who sailed a pick-off attempt at third base into left field, allowing Statesville’s Kyle Mastroianni to score.

Up until then, both teams battled back and forth in a pitcher’s duel. The Stingers’ Dave Koopenheffer, of Barton College, went six innings, allowing just two hits, while striking out six and walking four.

Statesville’s Wes McBride was nearly equal, also going six innings and allowing just two Stinger hits. Neither one of the pitchers got the decision.

The win went to Statesville’s James Kimsey, who went two innings without allowing a hit. The loss fell on the shoulders of Parker Sheets, a right hander out of the University of Texas-Tyler. Sheets allowed just one run on three hits, and gave up the singles to Mastroianni that led to the winning run.

Lake Erie College’s Zach Mosbarger and Gardner-Webb University’s Benji Jackson had the only two hits for the Stingers in game one.

In game two, the Stingers’ struggles continued and spread to the pitching mound.

Carolina used six pitchers in the game with starter Chris George, of Georgia College and State University, getting the loss. George went just two innings, but allowed six runs on five hits, while walking three and striking out two.

George was pulled in the third inning with a 6-0 scored facing the Stingers. His replacement, Bluefield College’s Ethan Lewis, did well to contain the bleeding, allowing just one hit in two innings before being pulled.

However, after he was pulled the next three pitchers – Chance Williams, Fort Mill’s Thomas Nichols and Michael Morgan – didn’t last a combined two innings. Williams went just one-third of an inning, allowing three runs on three hits, while Nichols lasted a whole inning, but allowed three runs as well on four hits. Morgan came in to put an end to things and got out of the sixth inning without surrendering a hit.

The Stingers again had just two hits in the game, with their first hit not coming until the sixth inning, a single from Jackson.

Brevard College’s Stephen Mullis had the other Stinger hit driving in a run with a double in going 1-3.

Bown said after the game that it was time for a change for the Stingers, who are now at the midway point in the season.

“I am going to go with the scrappiest lineup I can,” he said. “I am going to put people out there that can do the small things and get hits.”

The Stingers are back home this week Saturday with a doubleheader against Asheville at 5 p.m. at Fort Mill High School.