03/29/2024
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GUNTERSVILLE, Alabama – For West Bladen, the hits just kept on coming in the first inning. By game’s end, the Knights had an 11-1 win over Halifax County, Virginia, on Sunday in the winner’s bracket of the Dixie Pre-Majors World Series. The game was stopped in the fifth inning because of the 10-run rule.

The win left West Bladen as one of three unbeaten teams in the 12-team double elimination tournament. The Knights are scheduled to playMonday against North Charleston, South Carolina, at 2 p.m. Eastern time. North Charleston defeated Murfreesboro, Arkansas, 10-5, in a winner’s bracket game Sunday night. The other undefeated team is Independence, Louisiana.

West Bladen also will play at 8 p.m. Monday. If the Knights win their first game Monday, they will play Louisiana. If the Knights lose their first game Monday, they will play the winner of the Georgia-Alabama game.

By winning at least one game Monday, the Knights will be in the Final Four.

On Sunday, Trent West struck out the side in the top of the first inning, then West Bladen erupted for seven runs on eight hits, sent 13 men to the plate and left the bases loaded in putting the game away early.

“We hit a couple of seeing-eyes that got through there,” West Bladen coach Kim Cain said. “We jumped on them and I think it kind of took the wind out of their sail. Trent strikes out the side in the first inning. That let them see that Trent was going to throw the ball good. Then they went out and kind of self destructed in the first inning.”

The first five West Bladen batters — Jeremy Hunt, Seth Britt, Scott Bowen, West and Chandler Lennon — singled to start the game. West’s single drove in two runs and Lennon’s base hit scored another. After an out, Ray Jones hit a double out of the reach of the right fielder that drove in courtesy runner Jonathan Ashworth. Jarrett Williams followed with an infield single, one of the four infield singles the Knights had in the inning. Hunter Pait walked to load the bases. Jones then scored on a wild pitch for the fifth West Bladen run. A walk to Hunt, infield single by Britt and bases-loaded walk to Scott Bowen accounted for the final runs of the inning.

West pitched 2 2/3 innings, struck out seven, walked one and allowed one hit. He was taken out after 42 pitches so he could be eligible to pitch Monday. Dixie rules don’t allow a pitcher to pitch in consecutive game if they have thrown more than 45 pitches in a game.

Trey Storms finished up the game on the mound, going 2 1/3 innings, allowed two hits and a run with four walks and two strikeouts.

“We were able to let everybody play. That was great,” Cain said. “We got Trey some mound time. He did good. When he first went in, he should have got out of the inning on one pitch, but we made a couple of miscues.”

Offensively, West Bladen pounded out 14 hits against Virginia. Britt was 3-for-4. Lennon and Williams each had two hits. Hunt, Bowen, West, Storms, Jones, Ian Sykes and Pait each had one hit. West and Jones each had two RBIs, while Britt, Bowen, Lennon, Williams and Pait each had an RBI. Britt and Ashworth each scored two runs, while Hunt, Bowen, Lennon, Donald McCullum, Jones, Williams and Pait each scored a run. It’s the second straight game that West Bladen had recorded double figures in hits. The Knights had 10 hits Saturday in a 9-4 win against Alabama.

Even with the offensive output, Cain knows there’s still work to be done at the plate.

“The competition will start getting a lot tougher,” the West Bladen coach said. “We’re going to have to start hitting the ball better. We put it in play (Sunday), but we’re not patient at the plate. Our pitch selection is not good. We’re not swinging at good pitches. We’re swinging at stuff out of the zone. We’re impatient.”

After Sunday’s offensive explosion in the first inning, the Knights tacked on three runs in the second inning that made the score 10-0. Lennon had an infield single, then stole second. McCullum walked. Both runners moved up on stolen bases. Jones reached on a throwing error with Lennon scoring on the play. Williams followed with a single that scored McCullum. Pait then had an infield single that scored Ashworth, who had entered the game for Jones.

Virginia managed a run in the third inning on a bloop double and a pair of wild pitches that made the score 10-1.

West Bladen closed the game in the fifth when Britt led off the inning with a single, stole second, moved to third on a ground out, and scored on a balk that put the Knights ahead by 10 runs.

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