03/28/2024
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GUNTERSVILLE, Alabama – A gritty, gutsy pitching performance by Chandler Lennon, superb defense, which included turning three double plays in the infield, and timely hitting Saturday morning gave West Bladen a 9-4 win over Ozark, Alabama, in the opening round of the Dixie Pre-Majors World Series at Bill Moore Field.

Lennon, a right-hander, went the distance on the mound, allowing only four hits while striking out five, walking three and hitting five batters. He threw 102 pitches.

Any time that Lennon got into trouble, his defense bailed him out. The Knights turned inning-ending double plays in the third, sixth and seventh. Also, center fielder Seth Britt threw out an Alabama runner at third base after a pickoff attempt at second was wild.

Offensively, Britt was 2-for-3 with 3 runs batted in, Lennon was 2-for-3, Jarrett Williams was 2-for-3 with 2 RBIs, Ray Jones was 1-for-3 with an RBI. Trent West, Donald McCullum and Ian Sykes each had one hit in West Bladen’s 10-hit attack.

“Great defense after the first inning and Chandler threw strikes when he had to,” West Bladen coach Kim Cain said. “The three double plays were important. They may have won the game.”

West Bladen is scheduled to play Halifax County, Virginia, on Sunday at 5 p.m. at Guntersville High School in a winner’s bracket game. If the Knights win, they’ll play Monday at 1 p.m. against an opponent to be determined. If the Knights lose, they’ll play Monday at 10 a.m. against an opponent to be determined.

Bladen Online will have live pitch-by-pitch coverage of Sunday’s game with Scorecast, a Web-based application, as well as updates on its Twitter account @BladenOnline. A connection issue at the field in the sixth inning of Saturday’s game caused Scorecast to go down.

The links for Sunday’s Scorecast are:

Animated Scorecast:
http://data.iscorecentral.com/iscorecast/baseball/scorecast.html?g=83c1198c-c56f-a75f-4729-29728bb84501&dg=uhwwfutmyndh2rhhhz3vwxhcw6acc9znvn7vvwahus2rra67

HTML Scorecast:
http://data.iscorecentral.com/iscorecast/htmlplayer.php?g=83c1198c-c56f-a75f-4729-29728bb84501

After West Bladen was retired in order in the top of the first, Alabama scored three runs, using a pair of singles — one on a misjudged ball — a fielding error on a bunt and a walk.

“It sure didn’t look good,” Cain said. “I told the players that we got our bad inning out of the way.”

It must have been true. West Bladen erupted for five runs in the second inning and never trailed the rest of the way.

The Knights’ second inning opened with singles by West and Lennon. McCullum advanced the runners with a sacrifice bunt. Jones followed with an infield chopper over the second baseman’s head that scored West. Williams then slapped a single to left that scored courtesy runner Jonathan Ashworth. Sykes beat out a bunt to load the bases. Jeremy Hunt’s sacrifice fly drove home Jones with the tying run. Britt then ripped a single that scored Williams and Sykes for the final runs of the inning.

The West Bladen defense began to take over in the third inning. With one out and a runner on first for Alabama, West fielded a ground ball at third base, fired to Jones at second, who made a nice turn and threw to Williams at first for the inning-ending double play.

In the fifth, Britt made his defensive gem with an alert backup of second base on the wild pickoff throw and easily got the runner trying to advance to third to end the inning.

Meanwhile, the West Bladen offense, which hadn’t had a hit since the second inning, came back to life in the sixth inning with three runs that made it 8-3. A walk to Lennon, infield hit by McCullum and walk to Jones loaded the bases with no outs. Williams followed with a single that scored courtesy runner Ashworth. Sykes reached on a fielder’s choice with McCullum forced out at home. Hunt then reached on a fielder’s choice, but Jones was safe at the plate on a throwing error. However, on the play, Williams was tagged out at home trying to score after the ball got away. Britt followed with a single that scored Sykes with the final run of the inning.

The slick-fielding West Bladen defense came through again in the bottom of the sixth. With runners on first and second and one out, shortstop Scott Bowen fielded a grounder and flipped to Jones at second, who threw to Williams at first to end the inning.

The Knights added an insurance run in the seventh when Lennon reached on a one-out single and courtesy runner Ashworth moved to second on ground out. Jones then reached on an error that scored Ashworth that gave West Bladen a 9-3 lead.

Alabama tried to rally in the seventh, loading the bases with one out on a wild pitch on a third strike and two hit batters. The next Alabama batter was hit to drive in a run that made it 9-4. But the game ended when the Knights’ infield turned their third double play, this time second baseman Jones to shortstop Bowen to first baseman Williams.

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