Battling Bengals: Blythewood baseball wins in final at-bat to stay in playoffs
Trailing by two and down to the final three outs in considerably the best season in school history, Blythewood did not want to hang the uniforms up a final time.
Senior Justin Flemming executed a perfect safety squeeze scoring Alex Myers to rally the Bengals from two runs down for a dramatic 8-7 victory over T.L. Hanna Monday night in a Class 5A Upper State elimination game.
Blythewood, the top ranked team in Class 5A all season and 30-2 on the year, will travel to Fort Mill on Wednesday with the Upper State championship on the line. The Bengals must win twice while Fort Mill only needs to win once to advance to the state championship series.
“We just kept battling. We were making so many soft outs, but we finally got that lefty out of the game,” Blythewood coach Banks Faulkner said. “We had some guys step up and get some good swings. This team believes. They’ve believed all year. It’s unbelievable.”
The three-run rally capped a back-and-forth contest. Stephen Lang-Spittler led off the seventh inning with a towering home run to trim the Bengals deficit to 7-6.
After a strikeout, Kevin Steelman singled. Myers followed with an infield single to short that was thrown away, allowing Steelman to advance to third on the play. Myers stole second and Faulkner went to a pinch-hitter on a 2-1 count on Camden Watts. Harrison Collins took the first pitch he saw into left field to tie it at 7 and advance Myers to third.
After a conference on the side, Flemming put down a perfect bunt just to the first base side of the pitcher’s mound for the win.
“I had a pretty bad game. I overthrew the catcher and let two runs score, was 0-for-3, (but) I have to do my job,” said Flemming, who was 0-for-3 before his final at-bat. “Walk it off and go to the upper state with a bunt. Storybook ending.”
These looked bleak for the Bengals a couple of times. T.L. Hanna had leads of 4-1 and 7-5 but couldn’t hang on. After the Bengals rallied from the 4-1 deficit to take a 5-4 lead on a Steelman RBI single in the bottom of the fifth. Spittler and Landon Penfield also had RBIs in the inning.
Brody Winter tied it with a sacrifice fly to right field. The throw was wild coming in from the outfield, allowing Walker Klugh to score as well. Jay Dillard, a Clemson commit, increased the lead to 7-5.
Zac Cowan, the Class 5A Player of the Year, did not start the game after taking a ground ball to the face in pregame warmups. But with pitching getting thin late, Faulkner turned to Cowan. He responded with two innings of no-hit relief despite the fact he was pitching with a closed, swollen eye.
Cowan struck out the side looking in the top of the seventh.
“Hats off to Zac Cowan,” Faulkner said. “He’s our guy, but he couldn’t even open his eye. We asked him and he said, ``I think I can go coach.”
WP: Zac Cowan. LP: Jay Dillard. Hitters: B: Alex Nevils 2-3; Caleb McCants HR; Stephen Lang-Spittler 2-4, HR, 2B; Kevin Steelman 3-3, 2B. TLH: Walker Klugh 3-3, 2B; Fletcher Cothran HR.
