TAR HEEL – Nolan Bryant pitched a 2-hit shutout and struck out 8 to lead Bladenboro to a 14-0 Bladen Five Middle School Conference baseball victory Thursday over Tar Heel.
Logan West led off the game with a single and circled the bases on wild pitches. Bryant walked, and Colby White knocked him in with a single. White scored on a passed ball for a 3-0 Bulldog lead.
The Bulldogs exploded for 9 runs in the second. Austin Smith and West reached base on errors. Smith dashed home on a wild pitch, and Jake Butler reached base on an error. White and Noah Deaver drew walks with Deaver’s walk forcing home West.
Lant Pait laced a 2-run single that scored Butler and White. Braylon Williamson reached base on an error as Deaver and Pait scored.
Tra Ballard, Smith and West drew walks with West’s walk forcing home Williamson. Ballard scored on Bryant’s fielder’s choice, and West scored on an error as the lead grew to 12-0.
Lee Roberts and West drew walks in the Bladenboro fourth, and both scored when White belted a 2-run single.
Bryant worked a perfect first 3 innings, before Kendall Johnson and Tyre Boykin smacked singles to start the Panther fourth inning. After Dawson Bryan walked. Bryant pitched out of the jam with 2 strike-outs and a line-out.
Boykin started on the mound for Tar Heel, and Johnson and Boykin had the only Tar Heel hits.
White batted 2-3 with 3 runs batted in and 2 runs scored to lead the Bulldogs. West and Pait had one hit each for Bladenboro.
West scored 4 runs, and Bryant, Butler, Deaver, Pait, Williamson, Ballard, Smith and Roberts scored one run each. West, Deaver and Pait drove in one run each.
Coach Steve Thurman’s Bulldogs improved to 4-1 in the league and will host first-place Elizabethtown Tuesday. Tar Heel will travel to Clarkton School of Discovery Tuesday.
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