Bigfoots fall to HiToms, 6-2

July 12, 2023

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The Bigfoots' cause was not helped by two late controversial calls, like this one at second base when the HiToms runner was called "safe", and a short while later at home. Photographic images by David Rogers

By David Rogers. BOONE, N.C. — A strong pitching performance by Jay Dill kept the Boone bats all but silenced on June 12, as HP-Thomasville powered to a dominating, 6-2 win over the Bigfoots.

Dill, who plays baseball for Clemson University during the school year, was on the mound for seven innings for the HiToms. The 6-5, 250 lb. starter was hurling 93-95 mph fast balls with ease, mixing in the occasional curve and slider in allowing no runs on four hits, issuing just one walk while striking out seven Bigfoots batters. In all, Dill faced 24 batters and threw 111 pitches, 75 of them strikes (68 percent).

Dill’s counterpart on the mound for the Bigfoots, Walter Case, kept the game within reach by allowing just three runs on four hits in five innings of work, and much of the HiToms’ offensive production was the result of fielding errors by the Boone defenders (three errors while Case was on the mound, a total of six fielding errors for the game).

With the score still at 3-0 going into the bottom half of the 8th inning, the Bigfoots rallied with Dill’s absence, scoring two runs off HiToms relief pitcher, Joseph Ariola, with shortstop Carlos Amezquita figuring prominently in each. After second baseman Kai Wagner walked, Amezquita rapped a triple over the outstretched glove of the HiToms right fielder, then trotted home on an infield single by Tyson Bass. But that was it as Ariola settled down to get out of a 2-out, bases-load jam by striking out Boone’s Max Weller on four pitches.

The deficit tightened at 3-2, there was hope among the Bigfoots faithful that the High Country’s finest would stage a ninth inning rally to win the important Coastal Plain League game, but that was not to be. Offensively, the HiToms exploded for three runs on five hits in the top of the ninth to put the game all but away, then HP-Thomasville’s Ariola kept any Bigfoots thoughts of a game-winning rally at bay, helped out by an awkward baserunning error when Kai Wagner got caught in an indecisive pickle after the HiToms’ shortstop mishandled an infield pop-up.

The recent Major League Baseball draft provided bittersweet news for the Boone Bigfoots. Two all-star teammates, Nadir Lewis and Jalen Vasquez were both selected in the draft — Lewis by the San Francisco Giants in the 20th round and Vasquez by the Baltimore Orioles, also in the 20th round. While it was good to see their peers going professional, the Bigfoots were left without the services of two valuable teammates who made major contributions this summer, both in the field and at the plate.

The Bigfoots will look to get back on track Friday, July 14, when they host the Asheboro Zookeepers at Smith Stadium, with a 6:30 p.m. first pitch.