
West Bladen will seek a three-game sweep Monday in the Randy Ledford Memorial Easter Baseball Tournament while East Bladen plays a consolation game in the Freedom Christian Easter Tournament.
West Bladen (12-4) is scheduled to play host South View (11-10) at 7 p.m. Monday in the final game of the four-team round-robin event in Hope Mills. Saturday, the Knights defeated Overhills 13-1 and South Columbus 9-4 to become the only unbeaten team in the tournament.
At Freedom Christian in Fayetteville, East Bladen (9-9) opened Friday with a 13-6 victory against Village Christian followed Saturday by an 8-7 setback against host Fayetteville Christian. The Eagles are slated to play Wake Christian (14-5) on Monday at 1 p.m.
KNIGHTS WIN PAIR
West Bladen did all of its scoring in three runs Saturday in rolling to the 13-1 win against Overhills.
Garrett Dunham and Tyler Lewis combined on a two-hitter and struck out 10 while Ashton Davis drove in three runs and Cade Allen knocked in a pair for the Knights.
West Bladen took control with five runs in the third inning. Aiden Russ opened the frame with a walk and Brady Durden was hit by a pitch. Dunham reached on an error that scored Russ. A walk to J.T. Hepler loaded the bases. Allen followed with a sacrifice fly that made it 2-0. Walks to Hunter Hester and Davis forced home a third run. Lewis drove in a run with a line single to left. Russ was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded that capped the rally.
West Bladen added three runs in the fourth and five more in the sixth. Seven different batters had a hit for the Knights.
In Saturday’s second game, Hepler went 3-for-3 and drove in two runs, and Dunham and Russ each went 3-for-4 with a RBI to lead a 17-hit West Bladen attack in a 9-4 win against South Columbus.
Davis was the winning pitcher, tossing 4.1 innings, allowed two hits, three runs (one earned) with four strikeouts and two walks.
The Knights erupted for seven runs in the fourth for an 8-1 lead. Hepler’s two-run triple was the key hit in the inning. Russ, Lewis, Allen and Dunham also drove in runs in the inning.
EAGLES WIN ONE, LOSE ONE
East Bladen erupted for seven runs in the fifth inning Friday to score a come-from-behind 13-6 win against Village Christian.
The Eagles trailed 6-2 after 3½ innings, but scored three times in the bottom of the fourth to pull within a run.
In the decisive fifth, Easton Bostic and Aiden Hargrove drew bases loaded walks, Davion Lewis forced in another run when hit by a pitch with the bases loaded, Andrew Musselwhite drew a bases loaded walk, an error and a fielder’s choice accounted for the other runs during the rally.
Isaiah Lee was credited with the win on the mound, pitching 2.2 innings of scoreless baseball in relief of starter Zach Sholar. Bostic got the final out of the game.
Musselwhite was 2-for-2 with a double and two RBI to pace the East Bladen offense, which took advantage of seven Village errors. Colton Daly drove in three runs.
Saturday, Freedom Christian scored two runs in the bottom of the sixth that broke a 6-all tie, then held off an attempted East Bladen rally in the seventh for an 8-7 victory.
The Eagles’ seventh had Braylon Cromartie open with a walk followed by a triple from Lewis that made it 8-7. The next three East Bladen batters struck out to end the game.
Lewis was 3-for-5 with two RBI and two triples and Sholar was 3-for-4 to lead the East Bladen offense.