BLYTHEWOOD – With Landon Lucas on the mound and Jansen Stokes at the plate, the Blythewood Baseball team didn’t take much time in dismantling Greenwood Thursday night.
Lucas 1-hit the Eagles in six innings, while Stokes slammed two home runs and drove in four runs in a 7-0 shutout in the second round of the Class 5A District IV tournament.
The win puts the Bengals (21-7) in the driver’s seat of the four-team double-elimination tournament. As the only team in the winners bracket, they will wait to see the result of Saturday’s losers-bracket matchup between Greenwood and Riverside. The Warriors ousted Byrnes Thursday with an 8-2 win over the Rebels.
Regardless of opponent, Blythewood only needs to win one game against its opponent Monday. The visiting team will have to beat the Bengals twice in order to claim a tournament championship and move on to the 8-team double-elimination upper state tournament.
Against the Eagles, Lucas worked efficiently on the mound. He had a no-hitter going with two outs in the fifth and struck out four.
Alex Canino came on to start the seventh and got strong backing from the Bengals infield. After Graham Peeler slapped a 1-out single—the Eagles’ second hit of the game—Canino got Trey Taylor to ground into a 6-4-3 game-sealing double play.
Stokes got Blythewood on the scoreboard early. With John Lanier on base with a walk in the first inning, Stokes parked a 2-out Garrett Major pitch over the wall in straightaway centerfield for a 2-run home run.
The Bengals got three more runs in the third.
With Harrison Lambert on base, Zach Bailes laid down a bunt that bounced down the left side strong enough for Bailes to be safe at first. After Lucas drew a walk to load the bases with nobody out, John Lanier banged out a single that scored Lambert and Bailes to put the Bengals up 4-0.
Stokes drove in his third run of the game when he hit another long fly ball out to centerfield. While it landed in the glove of centerfielder Luke Poole, Stokes’ sacrifice easily scored Lucas’ courtesy runner 2 to make it 5-0.
Brady Beasley fouled out to retire the side, but Blythewood got two more runs in the fifth, a solo shot from Stokes and an RBI single from Michael Gregory that scored Nate Hinson.
Wednesday
Blythewood 7, Greenwood 0
Greenwood – 0-0-0-0-0-0-0 – 0, 2, 0
Blythewood – 2-0-3-0-2-0-X – 7, 7, 0
WP: Landon Lucas (6-0) LP: Garrett Major
Hitters: Blythewood – Jansen Stokes 2-3, 2 HR, Sac Fly. Zach Bailes 2-4.