By Sonny Jones
ELIZABETHTOWN — West Robeson capped an unbeaten run through the District 9 AAA tournament Wednesday with a convincing 21-9 win against Elizabethtown in the championship game at Leinwand Park.
West Robeson outscored its four opponents 68-16 in the five-team double elimination tournament and earned a berth in the state tournament that opens July 8 in Lumberton.
Elizabethtown beat Fairmont and Red Springs in its first two tournament games before losing twice to West Robeson.
Zaiden Hunt and Chandler Strickland each had two hits and drove in three runs to lead a 16-hit West Robeson attack. Brayden Clark was 3-for-3 with two RBIs.
For Elizabethtown, Baylor Gooden was 2-for-2 with three runs scored and two driven in. Greylan Nobles drove in a run with a single in the first inning and another run on a bases loaded walk in the fourth inning.
Hunter Scott entered in relief in the first inning and was credited with the win for West Robeson. He pitched 2.2 innings and allowed two runs on a hit and five walks and struck out six.
Aiden Wooten pitched 2.1 innings for Elizabethtown before reaching his 75-pitch limit. Eli Dicicco and Cooper Clark also pitched. The three pitchers combined to strike out three and walk eight.
West Robeson struck for eight runs in the top of the first inning.Noah Locklear and Brayden Clark each had two-run singles.
Elizabethtown scored three in the bottom of the first. One-out walks to Kai Smeigh, Gooden and Reid Hester loaded the bases. Nobles had an infield single that scored Smeigh while Gooden and Hester scored on a throwing error.
A single by Noah Scott and two Elizabethtown errors helped West Robeson extended its lead to 10-3 in the top of the second.
Elizabethtown struck for a run in the second. Dicicco walked, advanced to third on a pair of wild pitches and scored on Mark McMichael’s ground out that made the score 10-4.
Zaiden Hunt’s two-run single highlighted West Robeson’s four-run third inning that made it 14-4.
Elizabethtown added a run in the third. Gooden led off with a single to left and later scored on a wild pitch.
West Robeson put up seven runs in the fourth, sparked by a pair of run-producing ground outs by Micah Locklear and Kabre Scott and RBI hits by Strickland and Zaiden Hunt.
Elizabethtown rallied with four runs in its final at-bat. Dicicco was hit by a pitch and Shawn Davisson and Cooper Patrick walked to load the bases. After a pair of strikeouts, Gooden singled home Dicicco and Davisson. Bases loaded walks to Hester and Nobles accounted for the final runs.
The game was stopped after four innings because of the 10-run rule.
West Robeson 824 7 — 21
Elizabethtown 311 4 — 9
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