Blythewood J. Michael Ross tosses out the first pitch ahead of the Bengals opening game
Blythewood baseball team finished off J.L. Mann 5-4 in eight innings Saturday to claim the consolation game of the SC Diamond Invitational, but the Bengals very nearly let it get away.
“That’s sort of how it’s been,” Blythewood head coach Banks Faulkner said. “It’s been really tough for us to finish games. I feel like if you want to make a playoff run, you’ve gotta learn how to finish games and you’ve gotta learn how to rally.”
Faulkner was glad to see his team take some steps toward learning how to rally.
Blythewood took a 4-2 lead going into the seventh inning. With two out and Miles Daniels at second, J.L. Mann found a little good luck. Blake Jeter hit a lazy fly ball out to left field, and Blythewood’s Brady Beasley was tracking it.
And then Beasley lost track of the ball. When it dropped, Daniels raced around third and crossed the plate for the third run. With Jeter parked at second, King Price smacked a line drive that carried into the rightfield corner. Jeter easily made home, and Price slid in safely to third for a triple.
Price stayed stranded as Ryan Watson flied out to centerfield and ended the inning.
Blythewood nearly walked off with the win in the bottom of the seventh. Zach Bailes and Landon Cruz stroked back-to-back one-out singles, and Ian Stephen drew a walk to load the bases.
The situation looked primed for a walk-off play, but Beasley hit a ground ball to Kyle Forman playing between first and second base. Forman fired to Watson behind the plate to force out Bailes, and Watson threw to Robert Powell at first to get Beasley and end the inning on a double play.
Blythewood wasn’t finished. Relief pitcher John Lanier set the Patriots down in order in the top of the eighth. Then Ben Lang-Spittler lashed out a long double in the right centerfield gap to lead off the bottom half.
In an odd move, likely looking to set up another double-play, J.L. Mann intentionally walked Todd Mattox and Aidan Massey to load the bases with nobody out.
This time, Blythewood got a break. Cowan swung on and hit a lazy grounder to Powell at first. Powell moved in several feet in front of the bag to get it, but hesitated enough to allow Lang-Spittler to score the winning run.
“You’ve got to learn to man up and find a way to keep competing,” Faulkner said. “Looking back, I’m glad something happened like that, because it tested our resolve and tested our spirit. We just kept fighting.”
Late Friday, Dutch Fork beat Belton-Honea Path 7-6 in the fourth-place game.
In other games Saturday, Lexington beat Nation Ford 7-2 in the third-place game. T.L. Hanna won the tournament championship with a 4-2 victory over Dorman.
The Bengals finished the tournament 3-1.
In the first game Wednesday, Blythewood chalked up a 4-1 victory over Nations Ford. Bengals starter Daniel Zippel worked a complete game 3-hitter, striking out five. His only run was unearned.
On Thursday, the Bengals got out to a 3-0 lead going into the sixth, but the Yellow Jackets got four runs in the sixth and closed out a 5-3 victory.
Blythewood rebounded with an 11-5 win over Belton-Honea Path Friday night. After three scoreless innings, the Bengals picked up three runs in the fourth, two in the fifth, three in the sixth and three in the seventh. They were up 11-1 before the Bears picked up four runs on a hit and three Bengals errors in the bottom of the seventh, but it wasn’t enough.
“It was not easy for us, but we’ve got a saying that we’ve used, ‘the tougher it is, the more we like it,’” Faulkner said. “I don’t truly feel like our kids believe that, but hopefully this will help. We’re a very improved team. We’ve pitched really well the entire tournament, and defensively we played together. Just trying to put everything together has been a challenge for us, but we’ve focused on controlling what we can be controlled and staying positive.”
Saturday
Blythewood 5, J.L. Mann 4
J.L. Mann:2-0-0-0-0-0-2-0- 4 5 1
Blythewood:2-1-1-0-0-0-0-1 – 5 12 2
WP: Landon Lucas. LP: Jamison Patterson.
Hitters: Blythewood – Josh Cowan 3-5. Zach Bailes 2-4. Landon Cruz 2-3, 2B. Jordan Flemming 2-3. Ben Lang-Spittler 2B. J.L.Mann – Myles Daniels 2-4, 2B. King Price 3B. Matthew Lumsden 2B. Blake Jeter 2B.
Friday
Blythewood 11, Belton-Honea Path 5
Blythewood: 0-0-0-3-2-3-3- 11 12 3
Belton-Honea Path:0-0-0-0-0-1-4- 5 6 1
WP: Landon Lucas. LP: Jamison Patterson.
Hitters: Blythewood – Todd Mattox 2-4, 2B. Landon Lucas 2-4. Thomas Murphy 2B. Belton-Honea Path – Griffin Jester 2-4. Jacob Keown 3B.
Thursday
T.L. Hanna 5, Blythewood 3
T.L. Hanna:0-0-0-0-0-4-1- 5 8 2
Blythewood:0-1-1-0-1-0-0- 3 6 1
WP: Tyler Kirkland. LP: John Lanier.
Hitters: T.L. Hanna – Gaines Yates 2-4. Austin Welborn 2-2. Alex Meredith 2B.
Wednesday
Blythewood 4, Nations Ford 1
Nations Ford: 0-0-0-0-0-1-0 – 1 2 4
Blythewood: 1-1-0-0-2-0-x –
4 6 2
WP: Daniel Zippel. LP: Evan Lammers.
Hitters: Blythewood – Aidan Massey 2-3, Josh Cowan 2-3 Ben Lang-Spittler 2-4.
