King’s Fork loses to a team they previously shut out

PORTSMOUTH — Every baseball game starts out 0-0.

King’s Fork learned that lesson, and probably a couple others, on Friday, falling 7-1 to Wilson just two days after beating the same team 16-0.

The Presidents took care of the 0-0 part of Friday evening’s contest quickly and went on to plate runs in each of the first four innings, in contrast to Wednesday’s game at King’s Fork, when the Bulldogs put together big rallies to lead 9-0 after two innings.

A leadoff walk, a wild pitch, then a poor throw from first to third after a grounder to short gave the Bulldogs one out all added up to a President run in the first.

The Presidents scored again, again without needing a hit, in the second. This time, back-to-back walks and a balk put a Wilson runner on third with one out. KF pitcher Jonathan Wilson fielded a little chopper near the third base line, faked to first, had the President runner from third in a rundown, but couldn’t get a tag on him as the runner, stopped, started, and somehow stayed in the baseline, to get by Wilson and to the plate.

After a failed squeeze play hurt the Bulldogs in the first inning and the Bulldogs couldn’t get on the board in the second despite a double and single to set the table with one out, the Bulldogs cut into Wilson’s lead in the third.

Noah Johnson singled with two down and stole second. Danny Gromkoski hit a hard grounder by the second baseman driving Johnson in to make it 2-1 Presidents.

Wilson only picked up its slugging, though, posting four runs in the third.

Two President pitchers totaled nine strikeouts. After Wilson’s big rally to take a 6-1 lead, the Bulldogs managed to send only one batter over the minimum to the plate in the last four frames.

Jonathan Wilson pitched a complete game for the Bulldogs, allowing only six hits and one extra-base hit.

The Bulldogs (3-9, 2-8) return to Southeastern District play with the end of Spring Break. Next week includes two games the Bulldogs should have circled on their schedule.

KF hosts Deep Creek Tuesday evening. The Bulldogs can sweep the Hornets after getting a 9-6 win versus the Hornets in March. The Bulldogs visit city rival Lakeland on Friday. The Cavaliers beat KF 3-1 in the match-up at KF.