White Knoll baseball cruises, stays alive in Class 4A bracket

White Knoll coach Charles Assey has seen his team begin a disturbing trend recently – fall behind early and have to play catch up.

Things were a bit different in an elimination game against West Florence on Monday in the Class 4A Lower State bracket.

The Timberwolves struck for four runs in the first inning, and two more in the second to cruise to an 8-0 victory over the Knights.

“I thought we did some good things offensively,” Assey said. “Ten hits and eight runs haven’t been who we are all year. Getting the (four) spot and getting that momentum, especially with (Steven) Estep on the mound, was key. It was nice to have the early lead instead of coming from behind.”

White Knoll (22-7) will travel to Summerville in another elimination contest on Wednesday. The Green Wave lost 7-6 to Carolina Forest on Monday night. The winner of White Knoll-Summerville will have to defeat Carolina Forest twice on Friday to advance to the state finals. Carolina Forest, the lone unbeaten in the Lower State, will need one win.

Estep was big on the mound – and in that four-run outburst in the first inning. The Timberwolves took advantage of two walks, a hit batter, a sacrifice bunt and sacrifice fly to set the stage before Estep’s three-run double broke things open.

“Estep put one out in the gap and their guy covered a lot of ground,” Assey said. “The ball got in his glove and maybe the play should have been made. We were fortunate it fell on our side.”

Estep has moved down to No. 7 in the lineup after batting cleanup most of the season. He’s struggled in recent games and was just glad to get the offense jump-started.

“I was just going up there swinging because I’ve been in a slump lately,” he said. “I had the bases loaded, so I was trying to get those runs on the board early. It was a good comfortable feeling going back out to the mound with a 4-0 lead.”

White Knoll added two in the second and two more in the fifth. That was more than enough support for Estep and reliever Jacob Jeffcoat.

The duo combined to allow four hits, with Jeffcoat retiring 10 of the 11 hitters he faced. The only baserunner he allowed was on an error in the sixth.

Estep threw 72 pitches and left after the fourth inning. He was on in danger in the third when he got out of a bases-loaded jam by getting a fly ball to centerfield. Estep allowed four hits with four strikeouts and didn’t walk a batter.

Seeing both guys throw well pleased Assey. He knew when the week started his team would have to win four games in five days to advance to the state championship series.

“We have to win four games in five days, and obviously (Estep) has to be a big part of that,” Assey said. “I felt like he was beating their bats with velocity, and I feel like Jeffcoat can run it up there just as good as Steven. Somewhere we along the line, a third guy has to step up and that was Jeffcoat tonight.”