LELAND – South Park rallied from an early 2-0 deficit to edge Elizabethtown 3-2 Thursday and advance to the championship game of the North Carolina Dixie Youth Baseball Majors State Tournament.
Coach Grant Pait’s Elizabethtown team finished in a tie for third-place. Both of their losses were to South Park.
Elizabethtown struck quickly as Garrison Tatum led off the game with a walk, and Evan Pait walloped a 2-run homer for a 2-0 lead.
South Park answered in the home first as Tyler Nee was hit by a pitch and scored on Jim Johnson’s single. Hudson Adams led off the third inning with a solo home run that tied the game 2-2.
Hits by Nee and Greyson Little began the South Park fourth and Nee scored on a fielder’s choice.
Hunter Elks laced a 2-out single in the Elizabethtown second inning but was stranded at second base. Ty Mathis slammed a one-out double in the fourth, and Walker Ward smacked a single to leftfield then stole second base but the two runners were left stranded.
Mathis batted 3-3 with a double to lead the Elizabethtown hitters. Pait slugged the 2-run homer, and Ward and Elks added one hit each.
Coleman Tatum started on the mound and pitched 2.1 innings for Elizabethtown allowing 2 runs on 2 hits while striking out three. Mathis relieved him in the third and worked 2.2 innings on the hill, striking out 4 and giving up a run on 3 hits.
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