By Lonnie Turner
Through the first two days of the Dixie Youth Baseball Round Robin Tournament at Dillon’s Mike Lecholop/ Kiwanis baseball facility, two of the three AAA (Minor) League champions from Florence area are on top. The Lynches River All Stars belted out 12 hits on the way to an 11-4 victory over Lake View in Friday night’s second game and Saturday morning in the 10 o’clock game, McLeod Park handed Dillon Kiwanis its first loss, 8-3.
Dillon Kiwanis edged Francis Marion in the first game of the Tourney in extra innings, 6-5, behind the six-hit pitching of Bryce Patterson, who walked only three and whiffed 13 on strikes. In the meantime, Francis Marion picked up its first win with a 10-2 decision over Lake View.
In the Dillon Kiwanis win, the winning run was scored in the top of the 7th when Jamison Pittman reached first safely on a fielding error. A wild pitch and passed ball later, he scored from third on Dakota Barfield’s sacrifice fly ball to left field. In the bottom of the inning, Patterson struck out the side to get the win. Luke King led the team with two hits in three plate appearances and Weston Byrd hit a run-scoring triple to the right corner of right field. Jesse Altman and Jamison Hargrove had an rbi single apiece and also contributing base hits were Barfield and Brenden Miles. DeShawn Robinson belted two doubles driving in three runs for Francis Marion.
McLeod Park hit early to defeat Dillon in Saturday’s first game.
The light blue clad all-stars scored twice in the first inning on a 2-run single by catcher Trace Edwards, 2 more in the second on singles by Ryan Johnson and Evan Faulk and 2 in the third on singles by Noah Moore and Peyton Rogers. The final two runs crossed the plate in the top of the sixth on consecutive hits by Cooper Coleman and Caleb Klucharich and two Dillon fielding miscues.
The three Dillon runs scored on three consecutive two-out walks and a two-run single by Dakota Barfield.
The tournament will continue Monday starting at 6 p.m.
