ROCKY POINT – Junior Kyle Tatum lined a 2-run home run over the left field fence in the seventh inning to vault East Bladen to a 7-6 Four County Conference baseball victory over Heide Trask Thursday night.
With the scored tied 5-5, sophomore Sincere Smith led off the Eagle seventh inning with a single but was thrown out at third base. Sophomore Greyson Heustess drew a walk, and Tatum drilled the home run down the left field line for a 7-5 East lead.
Senior Alex Coates allowed a walk and a run on a 2-out single in the bottom of the seventh, but a force-out at second base ended the game. Coates struck out twelve Titans, scattered 9 hits and 2 walks and gave up 3 earned runs. The complete-game victory ran his season record to 5-0.
Nic Richardson reached base on an error and came around to score in the first inning for a 1-0 Titan lead.
The Eagles tied the game in the second inning. Sophmore Ty Watkins belted a lead-off single, and Coates hammered a double into the leftfield corner to drive in Watkins with the tying run.
Michael Stroman doubled in the Trask third inning, and Tynaffit Davis drove him in with a single to put the Titans on top 2-1.
The Eagles fought back scoring 3 runs after two were out in the fourth inning. Wooten started the rally with a single and raced home when Coates slammed a double to leftfield.
Sophmore Quinton Bedsole walloped a double to left-centerfield to drive in Coates. Sophmore Deondre Newkirk swatted a single, and Smith laced a single to left to drive in Bedsole and extend the East Bladen lead to 4-2.
Nathan Harrell singled to begin the Trask fourth, and after a sacrifice bunt, Chase Foxbower knocked in Harrell and closed the gap to 4-3.
Tatum blasted a triple to begin the East Bladen fifth and darted home on senior Nikita Owens’ ground ball to push the Eagle lead to 5-3.
Stroman started the Trask fifth with a single, and Davis crushed a triple to rightfield to drive in Stroman. Jordan Flora delivered a single to drive in Davis and tie the game 5-5.
Smith batted 3-4 with a double and a run batted in to lead the Eagle hitters. Tatum blasted the triple and the home run and finished 2-4 with 2 rbi’s and 2 runs scored.
Coates smashed the pair of doubles and was 2-3 with at the plate with 2 rbi’s and a run scored. Bedsole crushed the double, scored a run and drove in a run.
Newkirk, Wooten and Watkins collected one hit each, and Wooten, Watkins and Heustess scored one run each. Owens had an rbi.
Stroman batted 2-2 with a double and 2 runs scored for Trask. Davis finished 2-3 at the plate with 2 rbi’s and a run scored. Flora batted 2-4 with a run scored.
The Eagles remained unbeaten in conference play with a 3-0 record and are now 5-2 overall. East Bladen will play E. E. Smith Saturday at 4 p.m. in the J. Hoyt Warren/Wayne Edwards Invitational Tournament at Douglas Byrd in Fayetteville
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