03/28/2024
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GUNTERSVILLE, AlabamaOn Saturday, West Bladen rallied from an early three run deficit to beat Ozark, Alabama, in the opening round of the Dixie Pre-Majors World Series.

Monday night, at Bill Moore Field, the Knights didn’t have a rally in them and were eliminated from the tournament with their second loss of the day.

Alabama scored in every inning en route to an 11-1 victory in a game that was halted in the bottom of the fifth inning because of the 10-run rule.

Alabama pitcher Paxton McCoy limited the Knights to only four hits and a first inning run.

West Bladen lost to North Charleston, South Carolina, 10-5 on Monday afternoon.

“We had trouble throwing strikes both games,” West Bladen coach Kim Cain said. “Some errors hurt us at times. Walks killed us. We got behind in the count and had to groove the ball and let them hit it.

“We had some chances in both games, but didn’t get the hit when we needed it in either game. We had some runners on both games and had chances to get in the game.”

Trent West started on the mound for West Bladen against Alabama, and went 2 2/3 innings before being relieved by Scott Bowen. West gave up six runs on six hits, struck out four and walked four. He threw 81 pitches. Bowen allowed five runs – four earned – on four hits with a pair of walks and a pair of strikeouts in two innings.

Offensively, Jeremy Hunt had a double while Ray Jones, Jonathan Ashworth and West each had singles.

West Bladen won its first two games in the 12-team double elimination tournament. The Knights defeated Alabama 9-4 and beat Virginia 11-1.

“Overall, we’re tickled to death,” Cain said.” We won two games in the tournament, and had won 10 games in a row coming into today. I’m proud of the players. We’re been (to the World Series) three years in a row, and not many people can say that.

“I told the players to make sure they keep these jerseys because when they’re my age, they can tell their grandkids about it,” Cain said. “When their grandkids are playing T-ball, they can pull out that old jersey and say, “Look, boys, I played in the World Series and represented the state of North Carolina.  That’s something to be proud of.”

West Bladen’s lone run came in its first at bat. Hunt led off the game with a booming double to left-center and Seth Britt walked. Bowen attempted a sacrifice bunt, but Alabama got the forced out on Hunt at third base. West followed with a single to left, and Britt scored when the Alabama left fielder misplayed the ball.

Alabama tied it at 1-1 in the bottom of the first after there were two outs. A walk, single, hit batter and walked plated the run.

West Bladen had a potential two-out rally in the second inning snuffed out by Alabama center fielder Devin Jiles. Hunt hit a blast to deep center, but Jiles ran back and caught the ball as he crashed hard into the fence.

West Bladen had only one runner reach as far as third base the rest of the game. It came in the fifth when a lead off single by Ashworth and a walk to Hunt put two runners aboard. But three straight infield grounders resulted in force outs.

Meanwhile, Alabama scored three runs in the third inning, two in the fourth and closed out the game with a pair of runs in the bottom of the fifth.

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