BLADENBORO – Lefthanded junior Caden Cook pitched a 1-hit shutout and struck out 11 batters to lead North Brunswick to a 3-0 victory Tuesday night over West Bladen in the championship game of the West Bladen Easter Tournament.
Cook was 1 out away from a 5-inning no-hitter when Knight freshman Cade Allen rapped a bad-hop single past shortstop. Walks to senior Devon Strange and junior Hunter Smith generated a Knight threat in the 4th inning, but a caught-stealing ended the threat.
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Photos by Kenneth Armstrong
West senior Brycen Blackmon reached 2nd base on a throwing error to begin the 2nd inning. Blackmon tagged up on went to 3rd base on Smith’s foul fly down the right field line but was stranded there as Cook worked out of trouble with a pop-up and a strike-out.
The Scorpions scored all 3 of their runs after 2 were out in the 4th inning. Junior Trevor Lucas raked a single to left, and Cook yanked a single to right. Jordan Stegall, the courtesy runner for Cook, stole 2nd base, and freshman Ayden White knocked in both runners with a single down the leftfield line. Senior Tommy Bost pounded a triple to left-center field that plated White for a 3-0 lead.
Junior Garrison Carr started on the mound for the Knights and worked 3.2 innings allowing 3 runs on 7 hits and 3 walks while striking out two. Freshman Brady Durden worked 1.1 perfect innings of relief, striking out two.
Bost batted 2-for-3 with the run-scoring triple to lead the North hitters. White cracked the 2-run single and scored a run. Lucas singled and scored.
Named to the All-Tournament Team from West Bladen were: senior Alex Brisson and freshmen Hezekiah Blanks-Adams and Brady Durdin. “Alex really battled for us on the mound in the first game and made several big plays at shortstop in the 2nd game,” said Knight Coach John Ammons.
Brisson ran down a bloop near the foul line with 2 runners on base in the 3rd inning then dove flat-out to snare a grounder later in the inning and flipped to 2nd base for the force out to end the inning.
Blanks-Adams doubled home the game-winner and scored twice in the 1st game and ran down a couple of fly balls in left field. Durden retired all 6 of the batters that he faced in the 2 games, striking out 4 of them.
The Knights, now 6-12, will host Clinton Tuesday night at 6:30.
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