03/29/2024
Bladen County Sports
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Bladen County Sports Elizabethtown Dixie Youth Baseball League President Mark Gillespie was inducted into Dixie Youth Baseball’s Danny Jones Club in ceremonies on DYB’s Opening Day in Elizabethtown.
 
The Danny Jones Club is an exclusive club whose membership is limited to those who have provided outstanding leadership and contributions to a local Dixie Youth Baseball league.
 
Gillespie, an Elizabethtown native, has been heavily involved serving the youth of the community in both Dixie Youth Baseball and in Boy Scouts for most of his adult life  “I don’t remember exactly when I became league president,” he said. “Sometime around 1992.” In 2015 Gillespie was named an Assistant North Carolina DYB State Director.
 
Lacey Suggs who led East Bladen’s Lady Eagles to the NCHSAA Class 2A Eastern Regional Finals was named to the Associated Press All-State Team and to the NC Basketball Coaches Association All-State Team.
 
In addition the 5-10 guard was also chosen as the Wilmington Star-News All-Area Player of the Year, the Fayetteville Observer All-Cape Fear Region Player of the Year and the North Carolina Basketball Coaches Association District 4 Player of the Year. She was earlier named the Four County Conference Player of the Year. Suggs scored 2,139 points with over 800 rebounds and 600 steals in her career.
 
East Bladen’s Eagles continued their march toward the Four County Conference baseball title. Sophmore Ty Watkins and Xavier Wooten combined to shutout Union 10-0 on 2 hits. Sincere Smith belted 3 hits, and Wooten slammed 2 doubles and Deondre Newkirk cracked 2 hits.
 
Senior Alex Coates pitched a complete-game 4-hitter in a 9-1 win over Wallace-Rose Hill. Smith batted a perfect 4-4 and Watkins and Kyle Tatum cracked 2 hits each. Tatum, a junior catcher, picked the tying run off thirdbase to preserve a 6-5 win over Midway.  Watkins pitched 5.2 innings to get the win, and Wooten got the save. Nikita Owens and Watkins cracked 2 hits each, and Bedsole hammered an rbi triple.
 
Coates pitched a 3-hitter in a win over West Bladen. Smith and Wooten smacked 2 hits each. Coates and Wooten combined to pitch East to a 10-3 win over Pender.  Tatum tripled and batted 3-3, Wooten drove in 3 runs and was 3-4, and Owens slammed 2 doubles.
 
Coates fired a one-hit shutout to beat Clinton 6-0.  Freshman Greyson Heustess knocked in 3 runs with 2 hits, and Watkins slugged a 3-run triple. Coates and Wooten teamed up to pitch an 8-5 win over Clinton.  Watkins and Smith connected for 2 hits each.
 
West Bladen’s Lady Knights rolled through April with ten wins and clinched the No. 1 Class 2A play-off seed from the Four County Conference. Carley Dawson drove in 4 runs with a 4-4 day that included a triple and 2 doubles in a 16-0 win over Clinton. Junior Kathryn Schultz pitched a 2-hitter, and Logan Autry batted 3-3.
 
Junior Sophia Singletary hurled a 2-hitter in a 25-1 win over St. Pauls.  Junior Laikyn Pait batted 4-4 with a double and 3 rbis.  Autry drove in 3 runs with 3 hits. The Lady Knights outslugged Freedom Christian 16-15. Pait drove in 2 runs with 4 hits, catcher Alanna Ludlum knocked in 5 runs with 3 hits, Dawson collected 3 hits, and Jenna Dove walloped a 3-run homer.
 
West Bladen worolled 25-3 over Union behind a Ludlum 3-hitter.  Kassidy Anderson tripled, batted 3-3 with a triple and scored 5 runs. Autry was 2-3 with 4 runs scored. Singletary threw a 4-inning no-hitter in a 15-0 victory over East Bladen. Ludlum batted 4-4 and drove in 3 runs. Singletary was 3-3 with 3 rbi’s. West Bladen snapped a 30-game Heide Trask conference winning streak with a 12-5 win at Rocky Point. Singletary picked up the win, and Schultz, Anderson, Autry and Dawson cracked 2 hits each.
 
In a 9-7 win over Pender, Ludlum, Dawson and Conner Brisson belted 2 hits each, and Pait crushed a 2-run homer.  Singletary’s 7-hitter beat Wallace-Rose Hill 9-1. Autry batted 3-4, and Ludlum and Singletary swatted 2 hits each. Ludlum’s 2-hit shutout defeated Clinton 18-0. Ludlum and Singletary delivered 2 hits each, and  Pait hammered a bases-loaded triple.
 
East Bladen’s girls soccer team beat everybody except Clinton and finished April with a 10-2 league record and 16-2 overall mark. Lacey Suggs recorded a ‘Hat Trick’ of 3 goals in a 3-0 win over Union, and racked up another ‘Hat Trick’ in a 4-0 win over Wallace-Rose Hill.
 
Suggs scored the only goal in a 1-0 win over Midway. Senior Abby Ward and Suggs both posted ‘Hat Tricks’ of 3 goals in an 8-2 win over Pender. Suggs pounded the net with 4 goals in a 5-0 win over Heide Trask, then matched that performance with 4 more goals in a 6-1 win over Wallace-Rose Hill. 
 
West Bladen’s baseball Knights rallied past Union 4-3 as Jeremy Hunt struck out 13 and allowed only 2 hits.  Senior Chandler Lennon drove in the tying run, and Jarrett Williams knocked in the game-winner with a single. Hunt and Trent West added 2 hits each.
 
The Knights beat Heide Trask 7-3 behind a Hunt 7-hitter that included 8 strike-outs. Troy Edge connected for 2 hits. West Bladen routed Pender 10-2 as Trent West struck out 14 and pitched a 2-hitter.  West cracked 3 hits, and Donald McCullum and Edge had 2 hits each. The Knights celebrated Senior Night with an 8-5 win over  Clinton. Lennon pitched the win, and Edge, Ray Jones, Williams and Weston Pidgeon  connected for 2 hits each.  Edge and West both hammered triples as the Knights evened their Four County record at 6-6.
 
Miller Heustess pitched a 17-0 victory for East Bladen softball over Union. Kaley Smith slammed 2 doubles, and Lauren Merritt was 2-2 with a triple. Heustess threw a 4-hitter in a 14-3 win over Clinton and knocked in 3 runs with 3 hits.
 
West Bladen senior Victor Jacome finished second in the Four County Conference Boys Tennis Tournament and advanced to the MidEast Regionals. Jacome won 15 of 16 singles matches in 2016. The Knight doubles team of Matthew Bobby and Manuel Arvizu placed third in the conference tournament and also advanced to the Regionals. The Knights were 10-5 in team matches.
 
West Bladen grad Abbey Walters pitched 3 innings of one-hit relief to pick up a win over Barton College for UNC-Pembroke softball. Walters batted 4-5 with a double and a triple in a double-header sweep of Augusta College.
 
Against Wingate Walters picked up the win in relief and blasted a triple and the game-tying home run in a 9-inning 5-4 victory.  The junior righthander no-hit USC-Aiken 10-0 to clinch a Peach Belt tournament berth for the Lady Braves. Walters also walloped a 3-run home run in the win.
 
In UNC-Pembroke’s home finale Walters slugged a 3-run triple and pitched the Lady Braves to a 7-5 victory over Montevallo, Walters crushed a 2-run homer in UNC-Pembroke’s 5-0 victory over Georgia College in the Peach Belt Tournament. For the season Walters was 8-5 in the circle with a team-best 2.76 ERA. Her .401 batting average ranked her 4th in the Peach Belt Conference. Walters’ 40 rbi’s was 7th best in the PBC. Walters was 5th in steals with 26 and tenth in home runs with 7.
 
Bladenboro native Clint Allen batted 4-7 with 3 runs scored and 2 rbi’s as his Coker College Cobras split a double-header with Lenoir Rhyne.  Allen’s 4 hits raised his  batting average to .317 and his on-base percentage to .449. He was second on the team with 9 stolen bases.

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