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The East Bladen baseball team did something it hadn’t done since the 2011 season. Beat rival West Bladen.
Alex Coates allowed three hits over six innings and Quinton Bedsole keyed a four-run second inning with a two-run single Friday night as the Eagles rolled to a 9-1 victory in a Four County Conference game.
West Bladen had won eight straight games in the series since East Bladen won both meetings in the 2011 season.
East Bladen remains unbeaten in six conference games and are 10-3 overall. The Eagles are scheduled to host Midway on Monday and play at Pender on Tuesday.
West Bladen is 4-11 overall and 3-5 in the conference. The Knights are scheduled to host West Columbus on Saturday at 4 p.m. in a non-conference game, then play at Heide Trask on Tuesday.
Coates struck out three and didn’t issue a walk in keeping the West Bladen batters off balance throughout the game. Xavier Wooten pitched the seventh inning.
Chandler Lennon pitched six innings for West Bladen. He alloed nine runs — six earned — on nine hits, three walks and three hit batters. He struck out four. Ray Jones pitched the seventh.
Sincere Smith was 2-for-4 with a double, run scored and run batted in while Wooten was 2-for-3 with a run to lead East Bladen at the plate. Bedsole had the two-run single and scored once. Kyle Tatum, Nikita Owens, Ty Watkins and Coates each had a hit. Owens and Watkins scored twice, while Kyle Tatum and Dan Tatum each scored once. Greyson Heustess and Kyle Tatum had RBIs.
Donald McCullum was 2-for-3 for West Bladen. Troy Edge, Lennon and Jones each had a hit. Edge scored the lone West Bladen run on a ground out by Jeremy Hunt.
East Bladen jumped to a 4-0 lead in the second inning. After an out, singles by Watkins and Wooten and a hit batter loaded the bases. Bedsole followed with his single to center that scored Watkins and Wooten, and sent courtesy runner Dan Tatum to third. Greyson Heustess then reached on a fielder’s choice to first and Tatum was safe at the plate with the third run. Smith followed with a fly ball to center that was dropped, but Bedsole scored on what would have been a sacrifice fly, and Heustess was forced out at second base.
The Eagles made it 5-0 in third. Owen slapped a one-out single to right, stole second, moved to third on a passed ball and scored on a wild pitch.
West Bladen cut it to 5-1 in the bottom of the third. Edge reached on an error, went to second on a wild pitch and to third on a throwing error on the play. Hunt followed with a ground out to second that plated Edge.
East Bladen pulled away in the sixth inning with four more runs. Smith had a one-out double. After the second out, Kyle Tatum’s single scored Smith. Tatum stole second and third, then scored on a wild pitch.. Owens was hit by a pitch and Watkins walked. Both scored when Wooten had an infield single and West Bladen made two errors on the play.
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