BLYTHEWOOD – As each game on the schedule progresses, the Blythewood baseball team has found a way to get the runs across in big clumps.
On Tuesday night, the Bengals closed out their ninth 10-run victory of the season with a 6-inning 10-0 victory over West Florence.
The win puts the Bengals (13-1, 7-0 Region 5-5A) in sole possession of first place in the region, and showed they had a command of West Florence (12-2, 5-1) throughout the game.
“Rankings, I don’t even look at them,” Blytehwood head coach Travis Poole said. “As long as we play well, take care of what we’re capable of taking care of ourselves, then I’m comfortable with whatever we do.”
Blythewood breezed through two scoreless innings before putting up five runs in the third inning. The Bengals added three more runs in the fifth and got two more in the sixth when play was halted on Johnny Collins’ base hit that drove in Jackson Bottar for the 10th run of the game.
“One thing we’ve done is that we’ve played clean defensively, we’ve gotten some timely hitting when we needed it, and the guys come and work hard every day, and they run the bases hard.”
Collins, the starting pitcher, worked a 1-hitter for the win, striking out five and walking three.
“Johnny’s last two outings have been real good,” Poole said. “He’s shown the caliber of pitcher he really is in those outings. He threw strikes. He walked a few tonight, and that’s what we’re going to get, but he actually threw well. It’s a good thing to have when you’ve got a guy who can toe the rubber who’s going to give you a chance every single night, and that’s what he does for us.”
Collins and West Florence starter Cooper Coleman worked scoreless innings through the third, but Coleman got into immediate trouble to start the bottom of the third.
Collins led off with a single to left, Sammy Franklin got on base with a bunt single, and Macon Leppert’s RBI single scored Collins for the first run of the game. Paul Rummel’s bunt to Coleman set up a play at the plate, but Franklin scored anyway and Rummel and Leppert wound up at first and second, respectively.
With the Bengals up 2-0, and courtesy runner Andrew Blackwell in for Leppert, Alex Myers sacrifice bunts the runners to second and third to set the table for Bottar.
Bottar delivers a line drive to left field that scores both Rummel and Blackwell to give Blythewood a 4-0 lead.
With Bottar at second, Coleman hit Amare Counts to put runners at first and second. Melendez then hit into a fielder’s choice that erased Counts and put Bottar at third and Melendez at first. Bottar later scored the fifth run of the inning on a passed ball.
Chance Johnson reached base on an error, but Collins ended the inning he started when he flied out to leftfield to retire the side.
Chase Anderson relieved Coleman on the mound for West Florence in the fourth, but he got into trouble in the fifth and Sha-non Langston relieved him after he gave up three runs in that inning.
“One thing I say is that they pull for each other,” Poole said. “We don’t have an ‘I’/’Me.’ They all pull for each other, and if one doesn’t do well, they pick each other up and if somebody’s not swinging it well, then somebody else steps up, and that’s what this game is. It’s a team game.”
The Bengals baseball team is at West Florence tonight and travels to Sumter Tuesday.
Lugoff-Elgin – 1-0-0-1-2-0-1 – 5, 12, 1
Blythewood – 0-0-3-2-1-0-X – 6, 7, 1
WP: Bowman Rummel 4.1 IP, 9H, 4R, 4ER, 4K.
L – Andrew Jefferson 4-4, 2B, HR, 2 RBI. Michael Butler 2-4, 2B. Jake Morris 2-3, HR, 2B, 2 RBI. Maverick Grigsby 2-4, 2B. B – Amare Counts 2-2, 2B. Johnny Collins 2B. Zach Hardy 2B. Macon Leppert 2B.
Blythewood – 0-1-0-0-4-4-0 – 9, 13, 3
White Knoll – 0-2-0-1-0-0-0 – 3, 7, 3
WP: Andrew Blackwell 3.2 IP, 3H, 3R, 1ER, 4BB.
W – Dillon Woods 2-3. B – Alex Myers 3-4, 2B, 3 RBI. Sergio Melendez 2-3, 2 RBI. Chance Johnson 2-4. Sammy Franklin 2-3, 2B. Amare Counts 3B.
West Florence – 0-0-0-0-0-0 – 0, 1, 4
Blythewood – 0-0-5-0-3-2 – 10, 9, 0
WP: Johnny Collins, 6 IP, 1H, 4BB, 6K.
B – Jackson Bottar 2-3, 2B, SB (2), 2 RBI. Johnny Collins 2-3. Macon Leppert 2 RBI.
