Blythewood secured a berth in the consolation game of the SC Diamond Invitational tournament with an 11-5 victory over Belton-Honea Path Friday night.
Blythewood takes on J.L. Mann in the consolation game at 11:30 a.m. Saturday. T.L. Hanna and Dorman will square off in the championship game at 2 p.m.
Nations Ford and Lexington play in the third-place game at 9 a.m.
Todd Mattox had two hits and a double, and Bengals starting pitcher Landon Lucas helped his own cause with two hits and two RBI.
The game was scoreless until the fourth, when Belton-Honea Path starting pitcther Jamison Patterson walked Mattox, struck out Landon Cruz, but hit Brady Beasley to put two men on with one out.
Lucas bunt singled Mattox in, then John Lanier singled in Beasley to give the Bengals a 2-0 lead. Patterson hit Brady Carson to load the bases, but struck out Nic Henderson for the second out.
Patterson walked Ben Lang-Spittler, which drove in Thomas Murphy, who was running for Lanier.
Zach Bailes flied out to rightfield to end the inning, but the Bengals continued the onslaught. Blythewood picked up two runs in the fifth, three in the sixth and three more in the seventh to take an 11-1 lead in the last frame.
Belton-Honea Path, which scored a run in the sixth to stop a shutout, came up with four runs in the seventh, but it wasn’t enough.
On the mound, Lucas worked 6-plus innings and 4-hit the Bears, striking out four and walking one.
Henderson came on in relief after Lucas started the sixth, and quickly got in trouble. He and the Bengals infield gave up four runs on a hit and three errors. The Blythewood defense rallied though, and got two grounders and a strikeout in the seventh to seal the win.
In other games Friday, T.L. Hanna beat Nations Ford 7-3, J.L. Mann topped Dutch Fork 14-8, Dorman leveled Lexington 11-1. Dutch Fork and Belton Honea Path played late in the fourth-place game.
Blythewood 000 323 3 – 11 12 3
Belton-Honea Path 000 001 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.
