WINNABOW – Bladen County rallied from a 9-5 deficit with a 7-run sixth-inning outburst to defeat Brunswick County 14-9 Monday morning in the North Carolina Dixie Boys State Baseball Tournament.
Bladen County chipped away at the Brunswick lead with 2 runs in the fifth. Brady Hollingsworth and Raymond Autry started the inning with singles. Hollingsworth scored on Jacob Priest’s fielder’s choice, and Autry dashed home on Grayson Clark’s fielder’s choice to slice the Brunswick lead to 9-7.
Drew Sholar led off the Bladen sixth with a single, and Ayden Piland reached base on an error. Zach Meares knocked in Sholar with a single, and Hollingsworth and Priest drew walks that forced home Piland with the tying run.
Clark belted a single that scored Meares and Hollingsworth. Tyler Hill hammered a double that drove in Priest and Clark, and Hill later scored the final run of the inning for a 14-9 Bladen lead.
Meares retired all 6 batters that he faced and struck out three as he picked up the win by pitching a scoreless sixth and seventh innings. Priest started on the mound and pitched the first 1.1 innings for Bladen allowing a run on a hit and 2 walks.
Clark relieved and pitched 1.1 innings allowing 6 runs – 3 earned – on 3 walks and 5 hits while striking out two. Autry worked 2.1 innings on the mound and gave up 2 runs on 4 hits and a walk.
Brunswick turned a hit and a walk into a first inning run, but Bladen answered in the bottom of the first. Meares walloped a double and came around to score the tying run.
Three walks, two errors and a hit produced four Brunswick runs in the second inning. Four Brunswick hits led to 2 runs and a 7-1 lead in the third inning.
Bladen fought back with 4 runs in the bottom of the fourth. Priest reached on an error, and Hill, Elijah Crabtree and Sholar drew walks that forced home Priest. Piland laced a single that scored Hill, and Meares slugged a double that scored Crabtree and Sholar to trim the margin to 7-5.
Brunswick bunched 4 hits and an error to pad their lead to 9-5 in the fifth.
Meares batted 3-3 with 2 doubles and 3 runs batted in to lead the Bladen hitters. Sholar finished 2-4 at the plate, and Hill smashed the 2-run double. Piland, Hollingsworth, Autry and Clark added one hit each to Bladen’s ten-hit attack.
With the win Bladen advanced to a Monday evening game against Columbus County.
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