BLYTHEWOOD – With a shot at a 5A Division 1 District 2 championship slot in the winners bracket on the line Monday, Spartanburg jumped on Blythewood’s baseball team early and stopped the Bengals’ late-inning rally cold.
Juan Aguiar’s 2-run home run in the Vikings’ 3-run first inning propelled Spartanburg, and relief pitcher Alex Bright got three straight outs in the seventh to close out a 7-5 victory over Blythewood.
Spartanburg (21-9) hosts the upper state District 2 final Friday. Whoever plays the Vikings will have to beat them twice to earn the championship. The Bengals (24-4) played Boiling Springs Wednesday for that right.
Vikings pitcher Connor Mode got the win Monday, giving up three runs on four hits, striking out four and walking two. Bright came on to start the fifth inning and pitched three innings of 2-hit ball, striking out seven.
Chris Colin went 3-for-4 and drove in two runs, Walker McCrory, Connor and Bolen Fields had two hits apiece.
“We were outplayed, they were a better team. There ain’t nothing else to say,” Bengals coach Travis Poole said. “It starts with me and it trickles down. They were better than we were today. The better team won today.”
Spartanburg head coach Jessie Dyar credited his team’s maturation after battling through Region 2-5A. The Vikings finished fourth in the region with an 8-7 mark, and the 8-team region field champion Dorman, second-place Boiling Springs, and third place James F. Byrnes. All of the top four teams have posted 20 wins this season.
“We’ve got a really resilient young group that got really battle tested over the last month playing some really good teams,” Dyar said. “They’re a testament to resiliency with how hard they go and how hard they play.”
The Vikings showed it from the first pitch.
Starting pitcher Johnny Collins walked Bright, the lead-off man, and gave up Aguiar’s 2-run shot. Later in that inning Parker McCrory scored when Colin reached base on a Bengals error to make it 3-0.
Blythewood scored a run in the bottom of the first inning when Sergio Melendez tagged up and scored on Brandon Bolton’s fly out to centerfield.
Melendez struck again in the bottom of the second with two out and Caleb Blackwell on base after a walk. He evened the score at three with a 2-run home run over the centerfield fence.
Spartanburg retook the lead with two out in the third with Colin’s bases-loaded single that scored McCrory and Aguiar and give the Vikings a 5-3 lead. Colin was out at second to end the inning.
Blythewood walked in a sixth Spartanburg run with one out in the fourth, but Charlie McCrory and Parker McCrory both hit into flyouts to retire the side.
Fields smashed a hard ground ball into centerfield with two out in the top of the fifth, and scored Colin for the seventh run.
Bright grounded out to end the fifth inning, but he retook the mound in the sixth and seventh frames and struck out five more batters. Bright’s only mistake came early in the seventh inning with nobody out—surrendering Melendez’s second home run of the night, this one a 2-run shot to cut the Vikings lead to 7-5.
“He had a great night,” Dyar said. “He handled it really well in the situation they were in and hit a really good pitch.”
The homer reignited the Bengals’ bench. Blythewood had a string of games that ended with late-innings heroics in April, but that end was not to be Monday night. Navy Strickland grounded out, and Bright struck out Bengals sluggers Amare Counts and Bolton to close out the win.
The expression on Poole’s face and the team’s post-game paces around the Blythewood ballfield made evident the pain the defeat incurred.
Knowing that his team has to bounce back and give Boiling Springs its best shot, Poole said the Bengals will have shaken it off by Tuesday morning.
“We have a 12-hour rule. You’ve got to forget about it after 12 hours and you go back to work,” Poole said. “We’ll get back to work tomorrow and play Wednesday.”
Mauldin – 0-0-0-0-0-3 – 3-5-2
Blythewood – 2-0-0-3-0-0-X – 5-5- 1
WP: B Rummel 6 2/3 IP, 3H, 2R, 2ER, 4BB, 5K.
M – Tucker Rice 2B.
B –Amare Counts 2-3, HR, 2 RBI.
Spartanburg – 3-0-2-1-1-0-0 –7-12-10
Blythewood – 1-2-0-0-0-0-2 – 5-6-1
P: Connor Mode, 4 IP, 4H, 3R, 3ER, 2BB, 4K.
S – Chris Colin 3-4, 2 RBI. Walker McCrory 2-4. Connor Mode 2-4. Bolen Fields 2-4. Juan Aguiar HR, 2 RBI.
B – Sergio Melendez 2-2, HR(2), 4 RBI.