Baserunning bolsters Devils in win over West Bladen

May 6—RED SPRINGS — After Wednesday's baseball game between Red Springs and West Bladen was back-and-forth over the first 4 1/2 innings, the Red Devils took over on the basepaths.

Aggressive baserunning led to a six-run fifth, the turning point in the Red Devils' 13-5 nonconference win.

"We know what we are, and we've got a youthful group, but we're going to be aggressive; I've been aggressive my whole career as a coach," Red Springs coach Chris Howell said. "And we're going to believe in small ball, and sometimes small ball works out just as well as anything else. That's why we're just going to do our game and not worry about the opponent."

The Red Devils had 11 stolen bases — a number which might have been even higher if not for a balk on an attempted steal of home — in the inning, after they entered the frame trailing 5-4.

Tyler McMillan singled, stole second and advanced to third on a wild pitch. After Lenny Berrios walked, McMillan stole home and Berrios stole second on a double steal. Berrios also stole third, then scored on a bunt single by Henry Buie to give Red Springs a 6-5 lead.

Terrance Barefield singled to plate Buie, who had also stolen second and third. After Aaron Goins singled and Barefield advanced to third, the pair each moved up 90 feet on a double steal, with Barefield scoring. Goins stole third and scored on a ground ball; Dorian Bryant reached on that grounder after an error, then also stole second and third.

Skyler Locklear and Jacob Locklear both walked, loading the bases. When Bryant tried to steal home, the pitcher balked, advancing all three runners a base and allowing Bryant to score the sixth run of the inning for a 10-5 lead.

"Just the unselfish play, I preach that a lot of being a team player, executing the bunts and stuff like that," Howell said. "That's really what we saw in the second half of the game tonight."

Barefield was also the winning pitcher after he allowed four earned runs over five innings, with six hits, five walks and six strikeouts. While it was an up-and-down outing, he got some key outs to get out of innings and prevent West Bladen runs, particularly in the fourth when he got the last two outs with the bases loaded.

"That's really important early in the season," Howell said. "Right now, the more innings they pitch, the better they're going to get. You can't rep game reps like you can do in practice, we can't do that. For some reason he seemed to perk up a little bit when he got a little pressure on him."

Lenny Berrios and Skylar Locklear pitched scoreless innings in the sixth and seventh, each with two strikeouts.

Barefield had three hits and Goins, Buie and Jacob Locklear each had two for Red Springs. Barefield scored three runs and Goins, Bryant and Buie each scored two; Barefield and Jacob Locklear each had two RBIs.

"It's surprising, actually, (to put up 13 runs)," Howell said. "I knew we were going to be youthful this year, but we've kind of come out and we're growing faster than I expected. So that was huge to get the 13 runs, but you saw how it was generated; there wasn't nothing hit over the wall or nothing like that, it was just small ball and taking risks, and I love being aggressive."

Barefield walked the first three batters of the game, two of which came in to score; Hunter Elks scored on a Bryley Williams RBI single and Hunter Smith came home on a passed ball. The Red Devils matched with two runs in the bottom half when a Jacob Locklear RBI single scored Barefield and Goins.

West Bladen had one run in the top of the third when Elks scored on a wild pitch. Red Springs took a 4-3 lead in the bottom half when Bryant, who doubled, scored on a wild pitch and Jacob Locklear scored on an RBI walk by Jaylon Lowry.

The Knights tied the game in the fourth and took a 5-4 lead in the fifth. Devon Strange doubled to lead of the fourth and was plated by a Bryce Fuller RBI double. Strange reached via a wild pitch on the third strike with two outs in the fifth, and was doubled home by Michael Young for the one-run advantage.

Red Springs added three runs in the bottom of the sixth. Lowry scored on a Barefield RBI single, and Buie scored from third when Barefield stole second and the ball was thrown into the outfield. Barefield then scored on a two-out ground ball error.

Chris Stiles can be reached at 910-816-1977 or by email at [email protected] You can follow him on Twitter at @StilesOnSports.