BLYTHEWOOD – The Blythewood baseball team lost back-to-back games to Sumter going into Spring Break, which caused some concern for the Bengals and head coach Travis Poole about hitting and playing well.
A decent run in the Hanahan Invitational Tournament over the break helped to ease that concern, along with a 15-0, 3-inning walloping of Ridge View Tuesday night.
“I thought we played well over Spring Break,” Poole said. “We lost a tough one against Oceanside, a very good team, but we played four quality teams in Charleston and I was happy with the way we played.”
With the win over the Blazers, Blythewood (18-4, 8-2 Region 5-5A) clinches the region championship. The Bengals have just one more region game to play, tonight’s rematch at Ridge View. Other games include a home game Friday—Senior Night—and nonregion matchups at Lexington April 29 and at home versus the Wildcats May 1.
“This time of year the teams that are getting hot are the teams that are playing deep,” Poole said.
Blythewood went right to work shaking out the bugs during the break. On April 14 they beat Oakton (Vienna, Va.) 12-2 in six innings, using an 11-run sixth inning to end it.
The next day they shut out the Berkeley Stags 8-0, with Johnny Collins and Chance Johnson combining for a 2-hitter and the Bengals offense posting five runs in the fourth inning.
Blythewood stumbled in a 14-7 loss to Oceanside Collegiate. The game was tied at 3 until the fifth inning, and Oceanside held an 8-7 lead going into the top of the seventh, but scored six runs in that frame and blanked the Bengals for the win. Amare Counts homered and Jackson Bottar and Collins doubled.
Blythewood polished off the tournament with a 3-1 victory over Great Bridge (Chesapeake, Va.). The Bengals got a run in the third on Bottar’s sacrifice fly, then two more runs in the sixth inning on Collins’ 2-run single. Counts and Macon Leppert doubled.
Against Ridge View Tuesday, Blythewood needed just seven hits to bring 15 runs across in three innings. Blazer pitchers Ashyr Robinson and Malcolm Crosby walked nine batters and hit three others.
The Bengals led 6-0 after the first inning, picked up two more runs in the second, and opened the 7-run third inning with back-to-back home runs from Leppert and Myers. The game ended with two outs on Myers’ sacrifice fly that drove in Chase Rollings, representing the 15th run.
April 15
Blythewood – 0-1-0-5-1-1-0 – 8, 10, 0
Berkeley – 0-0-0-0-0-0-0 – 0, 2, 2
WP: Johnny Collins 5 IP, 1H 0R, 3BB, 8K
B –Sergio Melendez 2-5, 2 RBI. Alex Myers 2-4. Porter Rummel 2-4. Macon Leppert 2RBI. B – Bryson Heath 2B.
Wednesday
Oceanside – 3-0-0-0-2-3-6 – 14, 11, 3
Blythewood – 2-1-0-0-1-3-0 – 7, 8, 4
WP: Charlie Becker, 5 IP, 5H 4R, 3ER, 2BB, 1K.
O – Andrew Palmer 3-4, 2 RBI. Finn Kucaba 2-5, HR, 4 RBI. Scott Henry 3B, 2RBI. Aiden Culler 2-3. Aiden Brusman 2B. B – Jackson Bottar 2-3, 2B. Amare Counts 2-4, HR, 4 RBI. Johnny Collins 2B.
Thursday
Blythewood – 0-0-0-1-0-2-0 – 3, 8, 0
Great Bridge – 0-0-0-0-0-1-0 – 1, 8, 1
WP: Bowman Rummel 6 IP, 1R, 1ER, 1BB, 3K.
B – Johnny Collins 2-3, 2RBI. Sammy Franklin 2-3. Amare Counts 2B. Macon Leppert 2B. G –Whitehurst 2-3, 2B. Cuddyer 2-4.
Tuesday
Ridge View – 0-0-0 – 0, 1, 4
Blythewood – 6-2-7 – 15, 7, 0
WP: Johnny Collins, 3 IP, 1H, 6K.
B – Macon Leppert 2-2, HR. Alex Myers 2-2, HR, 2 RBI. Johnny Collins 4 RBI. Sergio Melendez 2B.