DUBLIN – Senior Scott Bowen pitched a 2-hit shutout and struck out 15 batters to lead West Bladen to a 2-0 Three Rivers Conference baseball victory over East Columbus Thursday night.
“It was a superb effort,” said Knight Coach Kim Cain about Bowen’s complete game. “He was around the plate and when he got behind in the count he battled. To go 7 innings and not walk a batter shows he had great command of all 3 pitches tonight.”
Besides the two hits, the only other Gator baserunners came on two errors, a passed third strike and a hit batter. Sophmore catcher Jake Butler erased two of those runners by throwing them out at second on stolen base attempts.
The Knights took a 1-0 lead in the third inning. Senior Trey Storms drew a lead-off walk, sprinted to second base on a passed ball, advanced to third on a balk and galloped home on sophmore Dawson Bryan’s sacrifice fly to leftfield.
Kenji Bowen broke up Scott Bowen’s no-hit bid with an opposite field double down the leftfield line with one out in the fourth. Scott Bowen struck out the next two batters to end the threat.
After Gator starting pitcher Nick McLamb retired the first two batters in the home fourth, Caleb Heup was hit by a pitch, and Storms and Bryan drew walks to load the bases. However McLamb worked out of the jam with a strike-out.
The Knights tacked on an insurance run in the fifth. Sophmore Logan West ripped a double down the leftfield line, dashed to third base on Scott Bowen’s fly ball to centerfield and scored on Butler’s fielder’s choice for a 2-0 lead.
Sophmore Fisher Reeves reached on a 2-base error to begin the Gator sixth, but Scott Bowen retired the next 3 batters on a strike-out and two ground-outs to secondbaseman Dalton Pait.
Chan Floyd swatted a 2-out single to rightfield for the second Gator hit in the seventh inning, but Scott Bowen struck out the next batter to end the game.
West led the Knight hitters with the double and a run scored. Dalton Pait laced a single to centerfield in the third inning for the other Knight hit. Storms scored a run and drove one in, and Bryan had the other run batted in.
McLamb pitched the first 5 innings for East Columbus and allowed 5 walks, 2 hits and 2 hit batters while striking out six batters.
Coach Kim Cain’s Knights posted their first win of the season and will travel to South Robeson Friday night with a 1-2 record.
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