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GUNTERSVILLE, Alabama – One long, agonizing inning Monday afternoon put West Bladen in the loser’s bracket of the Dixie Pre-Majors World Series.
North Charleston, South Carolina, scored nine runs in the third inning in beating the Knights 10-5 in a winner’s bracket game at Guntersville High School.
The loss sends West Bladen into an elimination game Monday night against Ozark, Alabama, at Bill Moore Field at the Guntersville Recreation Center. The Knights defeated Ozark 9-4 in Saturday’s opening round. Ozark defeated Columbia County, Georgia 1-0 in eight innings Monday afternoon in an elimination game.
If West Bladen beats Alabama on Monday night, it will play the winner of the South Carolina-Louisiana game on Tuesday at 8 p.m. ET in the tournament semifinals.
In Monday afternoon’s game, Chandler Lennon was 3-for-4 with a double and triple to lead the Knights at the plate. Donald McCullum and Ray Jones each had two hits. Seth Britt added a single. McCullum drove in three runs, while Lennon and Jones each had an RBI. Lennon scored twice, while Britt, Scott Bowen and Trent West each scored a run.
Jeremy Hunt started on the mound for West Bladen, but came out in the third inning. Jarrett Williams pitched 3 2/3 scoreless innings, retiring 10 consecutive batters at one point.
The game turned on the third inning uprising by South Carolina. South Carolina had seven hits for the game, and all of them came in the inning when it sent 14 batters to the plate. South Carolina also took advantage of two errors and used two walks in the frame to take a 9-1 lead.
West Bladen had scored a run in the second inning when West reached on an error, stole second and scored on McCullum’s two-out single to left for a 1-0 lead.
After South Carolina’s nine-run, third inning, West Bladen got a run back in the fourth inning when Lennon tripled to the fence in right-center, and scored on McCullum’s ground out.
The Knights scored another run in the top of the sixth when Lennon led off with a double down the left field line, went to third on a balk, and scored on Jones’ one-out single to left that made it 9-3.
South Carolina tacked on a run in the bottom of the sixth that made it 10-3.
West Bladen staged a rally in the seventh inning. Caleb Sholar reached on an error and Britt was hit by a pitch. Bowen reached on a fielder’s choice with Sholar forced out a third base. After the second out, Lennon singled up the middle to score Britt. McCullum followed with a single down the left field line to score Bowen with the Knights’ final run.
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