Oran’s Kolton Payne dominates on the mound, leads Tropics to big win over Australia

For fans of the Southeast Tropics, much of Tuesday morning was spent anxiously waiting.

After dropping Monday’s pool play opener to the Alabama Rawdogs, the Tropics needed to respond in Tuesday’s matchup with the Aussie Drop Bears.

And respond they did, Kolton Payne cruised on the mound as the Tropics knocked off the Drop Bears 12-0 in five innings.

Payne tossed four scoreless innings allowing zero runs on three hits while striking out three.

“All of my pitches were working good,” Payne said. “I was throwing a lot of strikes and my catcher Trey Benthal was doing good work back there.”

Benthal had high praise for Payne’s performance.

“I love catching him,” Benthal said. “he works quick and I like when pitchers work quick with me.”

After a scoreless first inning, the Tropics posted a seven run second inning capped off by a two-run double from Luke Barnes.

“We were just trying to work counts and swing at good pitches,” Barnes said.

Benthal said coming in the Tropics knew they needed to swing the bats better.

“We haven’t been hitting the ball real well lately,” Benthal said. “Our offense finally came alive a little bit today.”

A slew of walks and wild pitches saw the Tropics scratch across three more runs in the bottom of the third to make the lead 10-0, and then they would tack on two more in the fourth to increase the lead to 12-0.

The Tropics scored 12 runs on nine hits in the win, taking disciplined at bats in the process.

“You have to take disciplined at bats in this tough of an environment,” Benthal said. “You’re playing for the biggest thing you can play for so it worked out good.”

Payne said the Tropics came in with an increased sense of urgency to avoid falling to 0-2 in pool play.

“We knew we had to come in ready to play,” Payne said. “We had to play good defense and come out and hit the ball. We had to bring some energy because we knew if we fell to 0-2 there’s a chance we wouldn’t make bracket play.”

With the win, the Tropics are now 1-1 in Pool B and they now focus their attention to Wednesday’s matchup with China.

“We’ve watched them a couple games,” Payne said. “I think if we come out and play like we normally do I think we can get a win.”

The matchup between China and the Tropics is set for 5 p.m. on Wednesday, August 16, at Capaha Field.