Junior catcher Kyle Tatum picked a potential tying run off of third base in the seventh inning as East Bladen’s Eagles remained unbeaten in Four County Conference play with a 6-5 baseball victory over Midway at East Monday night.
Midway had trimmed a 6-2 Eagle lead to 6-5 entering the seventh inning. After one out, a couple of East Bladen errors put Raiders at first and third base. As Midway’s Wesley Johnson attempted to steal second, Tatum fired a strike to third baseman Deondre Newkirk who caught Austin Peterson off third base for the second out of the inning. The next batter grounded out to second baseman Quinton Bedsole to end the game.
The Eagles grabbed a 4-0 first inning lead. Sophmore Sincere Smith ripped a single through the left side and stole second base. Tatum reached base on a fielder’s choice, and senior Nikita Owens belted a single to right-centerfield that scored Smith.
Sophmore Ty Watkins lined a single to centerfield, and sophmore Xavier Wooten laced a single to left that drove in Owens. Senior Alex Coates swatted a single to right field that scored Watkins and Wooten for the 4-0 lead.
The Raiders turned a walk, a bad-hop single, a wild pitch and another single into a pair of second inning runs that sliced the East Bladen lead to 4-2.
After Smith reached base on an error in the Eagle second inning, Bedsole walloped a triple to right-centerfield that scored Smith. Owens raked a single back through the middle to drive in Bedsole and stretch the East lead to 6-2.
A single and an error put Adam Butler at second base to begin the Midway fourth. However shortstop Smith fielded Chandler Williford’s ground ball and flipped it to Newkirk to tag Butler out at third base.
Peterson, the courtesy runner for Williford, stole second base, before Matthew Nunnery lifted a fly ball down the rightfield line. Wooten caught the fly in foul territory then gunned a strike to Newkirk at third to retire Peterson who had tagged up on the play.
The Raiders turned a single, 2 walks, a hit batter and a sacrifice fly into a pair of fifth inning runs. Austin Raynor doubled down the leftfield line in the Midway sixth and scored on Greg Nobles’ single.
Wooten relieved Watkins on the mound for East Bladen and retired the next batter on a ground ball to Newkirk to end the inning.
Watkins pitched 5.2 innings to pick up his third win of the season and allowed 5 runs on 6 hits, 5 walks, and a hit batter while striking out four. Wooten pitched the final 1.1 scoreless innings to record his second save of the season.
Owens batted 2-3 with 2 runs batted in and scored a run to lead the Eagle hitters. Watkins finished 2-3 at the plate and scored a run. Bedsole blasted the run-scoring triple and scored a run.
Smith, Wooten and Coates added one hit each. Coates drove in 2 runs, and Wooten knocked in one. Smith scored 2 runs, and Bedsole, Wooten, Watkins and Owens scored one run each.
Raynor batted 2-3 with a double and an rbi to lead the Midway hitters. Nobles finished 2-4 with an rbi. Williford went the distance on the mound for the Raiders.
Coach Russell Priest’s Eagles, now 7-0 in league play and 11-3 overall, will travel to Pender today (Tuesday) for a 7 p.m. game.
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