Sports

Baconton's Pinson catches plane to game, arrives late, then hits HR to lead Blazers to first-round win

Staff Reports

CLAYTON/CLAXTON - What a day for Baconton Charter's Tyler Pinson.

After trying to help lead the Blazers' boys tennis team to its first athletic state championship in school history during the GHSA Class A Final Four in Clayton, Pinson - also a star on the baseball team - hopped aboard a flight in Atlanta for a first-round game in Claxton, de-planed as the starting lineups were announced and then proceeded to enter the game in the seventh inning and blast a home run to give the Blazers a 9-6 win in nine innings in Game 1 of their Class A state playoff series.

Pinson even pitched in relief late in the game, nearly squandering a lead before his teammates' bats picked him up.

"It was pretty amazing," Baconton coach Bibber Birdsong said.

But apparently Pinson wasn't the only Blazer tired after Game 1.

In Game 2, Claxton stormed back to run-rule the Blazers, 12-2, and force a decisive Game 3 today at 2 p.m.

GRIFFIN CHRISTIAN 18, RANDOLPH SOUTHERN 7

Walks and errors hurt the Patriots in their first-round GISA Class AA state best-of-three series.

"They put the ball in play well, but we only struck out twice which means we weren't hitting the ball bad, but we couldn't make good on our chances and they did," said Randolph Southern coach Tim Goodin, whose team is 14-9.

Randolph Southern's starting pitcher for Game 2 today is Patrick Jackson, and the starter for the third, if necessary, game will either be Matt Fowler or Friday's loser, Matt Houston.

The teams were tied at 3 after the first inning, then Griffin Christian added one run in the second, four in the third and nine more in the fourth.

"We never recovered from that," Goodin said.

Randolph Southern's Cole Taylor doubled and homered, and home runs also were hit by the Patriots' Jamie McCook and Michael Ledford. Loy DeVane doubled.

WESTWOOD 7, HEIRWAY CHRISTIAN 2

The Wildcats (9-8) pulled away late with two runs in the fourth, three in the fifth and another in the sixth. Winning pitcher Clark Phelps went the distance, striking out 10 batters and went 3-for-4 at the plate, including two doubles. Brett Shiver went 3-for-3 with a double and Tyler Thompson doubled and tripled.

"(Heirway Christian) had a really good pitcher and we finally got to him," Wildcats coach Al Timmerman said. "He had thrown a lot of pitches and we started to see the ball well. Those guys who hit well are at the top of the order and put their bat on the ball and got men on base."

Shiver is the starter of today's second game of the series which begins at 11 a.m. today. A third game, if necessary, will follow.

WORTH COUNTY 1-7, HARLEM 11-6

After five errors cost the Rams Game 1, they bounced back to win Game 2 in dramatic fashion.

With the game tied 6-6 in the eighth inning, the Rams' Todd Sauls stepped up to the plate with runners on first and second base. Sauls hit a groundball to the Harlem shortstop and it hit off his arm and bounced into the outfield, allowing the winning run to score.

"I kept telling my guy to hold up because I didn't see it go in the outfield," Worth County coach Will Smith said. "But everyone in the dugout was yelling, 'go, go, go.' I'm glad he listened to them and not me."

The Rams play a do-or-die game today against Harlem at 1 p.m.

SEMINOLE COUNTY 8-15, SAVANNAH COUNTRY DAY 7-14

Jonathan Buczek came up huge in Game 1 for the Indians. He recorded the win on the mound and blooped the go-ahead hit over the second baseman's head.

In Game 2, the Indians jumped out to a 7-0 lead, lost it in the third when they fell behind 10-7 and regained it in the sixth with six runs highlighted by a home run from Jared Coleman. From that point, Dustin O'Hearn hung on for the win. The Indians await the winner of Telfair County and Taylor County, who split their matchup.

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