Landyn Potter and Aaron Mitchell combined on a seven-hitter as East Columbus held off an East Bladen rally to beat the Eagles 8-5 on Friday night at Russell Priest Field.
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Photos by Kenneth Armstrong
East Columbus held an 8-1 lead through 5 1/2 innings before the Eagles cut into the deficit. East Bladen, trailing by three, left the bases loaded at the end of the game.
East Bladen (2-3) is scheduled to host West Bladen on Tuesday at 7 p.m. A ceremony will be held between the junior varsity and varsity games officially naming the field in honor of former coach Russell Priest (pictured, left), who died last year after coaching almost 40 years at East Bladen.
Potter pitched the first four innings for the Gators and gave up an unearned run on three hits and a walk. Mitchell tossed the final three innings. He yielded four runs – 3 earned – on four hits with three strikeouts and three walks.
Lefredrick Wooten pitched five innings for East Bladen. The right-hander was tagged for six runs – two earned – on five hits with four strikeouts and four walks. Coleman Tatum pitched two innings and gave up a pair of unearned runs on a hit and a hit with three strikeouts.
Wooten and Jacob Priest each had two hits for East Bladen. Zach Meares, Drew Sholar and Rasean McKoy each had a hit.
The Eagles committed four errors and had six wild pitches.
East Columbus (3-1) combined three hits with a pair of Eagles errors to score four runs in the third inning.
East Bladen scored in the bottom of the third, using an infield single by McKoy, an error and a fielder’s choice.
The Gators tacked on two runs in each of the fifth and sixth innings for an 8-1 lead.
East Bladen began its attempt at a rally in the bottom of the sixth. Priest led it off with a walk and moved to third when Tyler Hill reached on an error on a sacrifice bunt. Tatum drove home Priest with a sacrifice fly. Sholar followed with a single to left that scored Hill and pulled the Eagles within 8-3.
In the seventh, Meares was hit by a pitch, Wooten singled and Priest singles to load the bases with one out. Meares scored on a wild pitch that made it 8-4. Walks to Hill and Sholar forced home another run that accounted for the final score.
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