South Carolina Dixie Youth Baseball AAA State Tournament Highlights

By Lonnie Turner

Game 1
Parks Field American (Summerville) scored both runs of a 2-0 win in the fourth inning of the first game Saturday night. With two out, Nolan Heflin walked and scored when Brodie Blanton followed with a triple and pitch-hitter Nate Harlin sent Blanton home with a single. Andrew Hughes of Abbeville led all hitters with two hits in as many times at bat. Parks Field American pitchers didn’t allow a base runner past second base in the win.

Game 2
Lexington scored six runs in the first inning and coasted to a 15-5 victory over Darlington in the second game of the SC Dixie Youth State Tournament at the City of Dillon Sports Complex. Leading hitters for Lexington with two hits each were Corey Waits, Jared Kervin, John Carter, Hunter Eargle and Jack St. Clair. Darlington managed only 4 hits in the four-inning game.

Game 3
Adam Graham hit a bases loaded single to spark a 4-run, 4th inning as McLeod Park of Florence stopped Hilton Head National, 7-1, in Saturday’s third game. Carter Woodberry doubled for the winners and Will Buckner had a single. Jack McCracken had two of three Hilton Head hits off of a trio of McLeod pitchers, including Graham, who got the win.

Game 4
Aynor overcame a 6-1 lead to beat Lancaster National, 7-6, in Saturday’s 7:45 game. Trailing 6-1 going into the bottom of the sixth inning, a single by Keegan Krasula and back to back walks loaded the bases and Jason Duke slapped a 2-run double to pull within three runs. After a hit batter, Walt Richardson and Gunner Britton hit back to back singles to tie the game after six. Duke knocked in the winning run in the seventh after two consecutive walks and a fielder’s choice failed to record an out. Evan Hardin homered for Lancaster.

Game 5
Honea Path All Stars blasted eleven hits to dominate Gregg Park, 13-2, in five innings. Honea Path pitchers allowed only 4 hits in the contest. Three batters had two hits apiece for the winners, including E.J. Parker (2-2), Justin Wilson (2-2) and Bryson Smith (2-3).

Game 6
The Dillon Kiwanis All Stars were stopped by Sumter National West, 13-5, in the opening night’s finale. Leading the way in the 9-hit attack was Joshua Edwards with a pair of singles and Seth Stamps, also with 2 singles. Sumter built a 10-0 lead before Dillon rallied for four runs in the sixth after getting on the scoreboard with one run in the fifth inning. Michael Minges led Dillon at the plate with two hits.

Game 7
The Darlington All Stars were the first to be eliminated from the 2010 AAA Tournament, falling to Abbeville, 7-5, in Sunday evening’s first of six games being played at the City of Dillon Sports Complex. Abbeville (1-1) had to play catch-up baseball after falling behind, 5-4, after five innings. Zach Overholt doubled in the tying run in the top of the fifth and scored the go-ahead run on a throwing error. Bryce Johnson gave Abbeville an insurance run when he sent Jacob Eder across the plate with a single in the sixth inning. Jackson and Overholt had two hits apiece to lead the winners at the plate. Jaret Bryant had two hits for Darlington.

Game 8
In another elimination game, Hilton Head (1-1) was victorious over Lancaster National, sending the team home by a 4-0 score. Michael Groupner scored the winning run in the second inning on a single by Boyce Kobler and scored three more runs in the 5th and 6th innings. Collin Kaiser and Groupner led Hilton Head with two hits apiece. Evan Hardin was the only Lancaster player to advance any further than third base in the game.

Game 9
Austin Batchelor and Drake Adams homered in the 3rd inning to lead Gregg Park past the Dillon Kiwanis All Stars, 13-3, in four innings, thus eliminating the local team from any further action in the tournament. Leading hitters for GP were Seth Moseley (3-3), Ethan Pifer (2-2), Batchelor (2-2), Jordan Flanders (2-2) and Adams (2-2). Ray-Ray McGirt led a quintet of Dillon batters with a double. Jon-Mitchell Carter, Jordan Hyatt, Hunter Pittman and Michael Minges each had singles.

Game 10
In the winner’s bracket, Sumter National West remained undefeated with a 10-3 win sending Honea Path to the loser’s bracket. Dalton Dabbs led the winners with a perfect 4-4 at the plate while driving in four runs. Lathan Todd, the lead-off batter had two hits and scored three runs. Honea Path managed only four hits off Sumter pitching and two of them were doubles by Justin Wilson.

Game 11
Aynor used the long ball to send McLeod Park to the loser’s bracket. In the 1st inning after falling behind 2-0, Jason Duke hit the third pitch thrown by Gage Moran out of the park and after two were out, Nick Young hit a pitch that left the park with a teammate on base. Four pitches later, Hunter Harrelson was rounding the bases with the third homer in the inning, which is a new State AAA Tournament for one inning, and Gunner Britton powered a two-run shot out of the park later to establish yet another record for the most home runs hit in a single game. Britton led the winners with 3 hits in 4 times at the plate and Adam Graham had two hits for McLeod Park.

Game 12
John Carter and the Lexington Independent All Stars shut out the Parks Field American team, 9-0, on one hit sending the Summerville team down to the loser’s bracket. Hunter Kelley hit a two-out single off Carter in the 2nd inning. Jared Kervin (3-4) and Jack St. Clair (2-3) led the 11-hit Lexington attack.

Game 13
Austin Batchelor hit a 3-run, walk off home run in the bottom of the 7th inning to lead Gregg Park to a 10-9 victory and eliminate Hilton Head on Monday evening. Batchelor had tied the game for Gregg Park with another 2-run shot in the bottom of the 5th. After a scoreless 6th inning, HH went back on top with two runs on extra base hits from John Blackshire and Collin Kaiser. With one out in the 7th, Seth Moseley singled and Ethan Pifer followed with a base on balls to set up Batchelor’s winning hit. Moseley finished the game with four hits in four plate appearances. Brookshire and John Burke had two hits each for Hilton Head.

Game 14
McLeod Park eliminated Abbeville with a 10-8 win on Monday as a result of a walk-off home run by Ethan White in the bottom of the 6th inning. Abbeville tied the game in the top of the 6th when Zack Overholt drove Bryce Jackson in with a 2-out double. Abbeville had McLeod down 7-0 going into the bottom of the 4th inning, but 5 bases on balls, an error and six hits, including a bases loaded triple by Will Buckner, led to eight runs and an 8-7 lead going into the top of the 6th. White had 3 hits to lead McLeod Park and Johnson had two for Abbeville.

Game 15
Honea Path became the sixth team to be eliminated, losing 6-5 to Parks Field of Summerville. HP scored four runs in the 1st inning with only two hits off starting pitcher Austin Little. His defense made 2 errors in the inning and he walked two before being lifted for relief pitcher Preston Shiell. Parks Field tied the game, 4-4, in the 3rd on consecutive hits by Stevie DeFranc, Chase DuPree and Nolin Heflin only to have HP come back with a run in the top of the 6th to take a 5-4 lead. Nate Harlin and Shiell drove in the eventual winning runs in the bottom of the 5th.

Game 16
Lexington scored nine runs in the 6th inning to score a 10-4 come from behind victory over Aynor and sent the Horry County team down in he loser’s bracket to play Parks Field on Tuesday. Aynor used five pitchers in the inning and a tournament high of six in the whole game, there were six walks, two hit batters, three errors and three hits in the marathon inning. Walker McDowell was Lexington’s leading hitter with three singles in four at bats and Austin Pearce had two singles for the winners. In a losing cause, Walt Richardson, Nick Young and Hunter Harrelson had two hits apiece.

Game 17
Adam Graham powered McLeod Park to a 7-3 victory over Gregg Park in Tuesday’s first of two games in the loser’s bracket. The loss eliminated Gregg Park and the Florence team advanced to play the winner of game 19 in the winner’s bracket between Lexington and Sumter National West. The game was featured in last Thursday’s edition of the Dillon Herald.

Game 18
Parks Field eliminated Aynor from the tournament in Tuesday’s second game with an 8-6 win. That game was also featured in Thursday’s Herald.

Game 19
Lexington Independent edged Sumter National West, 6-5, in Tuesday night’s final game, which set up Wednesday’s schedule between Parks Field (3-1) and Sumter (2-1) in the first game and Lexington (4-0) going against McLeod Park (3-1). The Sumter-Lexington game was featured in Thursday’s Herald..

Game 20
On Wednesday, Sumter took its loss to Lexington out on Parks Field with a dominating 18-8 thrashing. Dalton Dabbs, Riley Nettles and Brendon Bonds had six of the teams 11 hits, with two hits apiece. Parks Field was eliminated by the defeat and the quest for the championship was at hand. Sumter would wait for the Lexington-McLeod Park outcome to see who would be playing for the trip to Gonzales, Louisiana and the World Series.

Game 21
McLeod couldn’t work their come from behind magic in their final game of the tournament as they fell to Lexington, 6-5, in Wednesday’s late game. Lexington scored two runs in the first, another in the second and two more in the third before McLeod Park could get on the board. The come from behind kids fell one run short in this games, but gave it their best shot scoring two in the 4th and another to pull to within two in the 5th. Kameron Tyler’s triple in the top of the 6th inning scored Carter Woodberry, who had walked, but Tyler was left stranded when Ethan White grounded out to the pitcher.

Game 22
Lexington Independent and Sumter National West met in what Lexington hoped would be the Championship game Thursday morning at 11 o’clock. With the thermometer in the press box hovering around 95 degrees, the two teams went at it. Sumter jumped out to a 3-0 lead on five straight hits: singles by Dalton Dabbs, Riley Nettles and Luke Stokes and back to back doubles by Evans Lewis and Seth Stamps. Not to be outdone, Lexington roared back with three of their own runs to tie the game after one inning of play. Corey Waits and Hunter Eargle singled and Marc Abbott doubled in two runs. Lexington couldn’t get anything going after the 1st inning offensively, but Sumter continued to roll with seven more runs on a tournament high output of 16 hits as the team forced an “if“ game with a 10-3 win.. Dabbs had three hits, as did Nettles and three batters, Nathan Todd, Stamps and Joshua Edwards had two apiece. Jared Kervin and Hunter Eargle had two hits each for Lexington.

Game 23
The Championship Game
The Thursday afternoon temperature rose to over 100 degrees for the second and deciding game between Lexington Independent and Sumter National West. Lexington scored first with three runs in the bottom of the first inning and added two more in the 3rd to defeat Sumter, 5-2, and advance to play in the World Series in Lousiana Bayou country later in August. Jared Kervin and Walker McDowell led Lexington at the plate with two hits apiece and Evans Lewis had two hits for Sumter. McDowell also went the distance on the mound to get the pitching win.

(Photos provided by Kevin Scott.)

Tags: AAA, Baseball, Dixie Youth, Lonnie Turner, Tournament