Landrum is a off to a hot start this season within region play. The Cardinals dominated Greenville Tech Charter early last week and that streak continued on Friday night against Whitmire. Landrum is the defending Region II-1A champions and that’s carrying over into this season.
Landrum coach Ray McCallister has been preaching aggressiveness to his team. He wants his team swinging early in the count, but only if they see something they like.
“We want to be patient,” McCallister said, “but we want to be aggressively patient.”
That game plan worked March 9 as the Cardinals scored 11 runs in the final four innings against Whitmire en route to an 11-1 victory.
The Cardinal bats heated up in the third inning. Connor Noland took two strikes before hitting a shot to Whitmire’s third baseman Alex Ellison. Ellison tossed an errant throw to first base. Cardinal leadoff hitter T.J. Fincher hit a ball through the legs of Wolverine shortstop Cory Robertson on the first pitch from Josh Johnson to drive in Noland. Two batters later, Landrum pitcher Kaleb Kuykendall laid down a perfect bunt to the first base side for an RBI single on the first pitch. Kuykendall would score on a sacrifice fly by Gus Wofford.
The Cardinals scored five more runs in the fourth. Second baseman Jon Humphries drove in two runs with a single and Kuykendall drove in a run with a single. Wofford and Josey Smith drove in the other two runs for Landrum.