Lexington baseball rallies to win its South Carolina playoff opener

River Bluff also wins opener; read our recaps of several playoff openers from the Midlands area

LEXINGTON, SOUTH CAROLINA - Battle tested from competitive region and non-region play, the Lexington baseball team did not flinch from an early deficit to visiting Mauldin.

Instead, the Wildcats stormed back to defeat the Mavericks 4-2 in the opening game of the Class 5A Upper State District Two playoffs, Tuesday.

“They might be comfortable, but their head coach surely isn’t,” said Lexington head coach Brian Hucks said about playing in close games. “But this is why we play the schedule we do because we know we’re going to be in games that are tough and whenever we’re behind, we feel like we’re still in it. We know we have a chance to score runs and we did not tonight.”

Jackson Burton struck out six and allowed just two hits in five innings to pick up the win. He exited with the lead which was preserved by reliever Cam Sutton.

Lexington reliever Cam Sutton (above) came on to pitch the final two innings, striking out five batters, and preserve a win for starter Jackson Burton / Photo by Thomas Grant, Jr

Mauldin took a 2-0 lead in the second inning. After Burton walked the first two batters and they moved over on a sacrifice bunt, the Mavericks scored on back-to-back fielder’s choices.

Jonah Hogge held the Wildcats scoreless through the first three innings. With two outs and Will Burgess on second, Wes Duckett lined a double to leftfield to put Lexington on the board.

After a wild pitch moved pinch runner Connor Holmes to third base, Jackson Cionek singled to centerfield to tie the game.

Drew Batson relieved Hogge and got Tyler Floyd to line out to third base to end the inning. He was not as fortunate in the fifth inning when Gabe Herold floated a flyball into the wind blowing in leftfield and over the fence for the go-ahead home run.

“Anytime we’re down, we still fight,” Herold said. “We have a lot of energy in the dugout and we know we’re not done in a game. Big hit by Wes, big hit by Cionek…it just wired us up and we just keep going.”

“He’s been swinging really well lately and had been kind of hitting it right at people, so it was good to see him catch a few breaks today,” Hucks said. “He hit some balls hard early, had a couple of hits. Then the huge ball he got up in the wind that kind of gave us some space here tonight.”

Landon Knight followed with a double and scored on a two-out double by Henry Jackson.

Henry Jackson follows-through on a swing that produced a two-run double for the Wildcats / Photo by Thomas Grant, Jr

Cam Sutton closed out the victory by striking out five of the seven batters faced in two scoreless innings.

Up next for Lexington (26-5) in the winner’s bracket at home Thursday is Dorman. The Cavaliers won in similar fashion with a 6-2 victory at Clover.

The game was tied at 2-2 in the top 7th when University of North Carolina signee Mitch Wilson hit a two-run single and Chaz Welch followed with a two-run double.

Lexington teammates celebrate and carry Gabe Herold back to the dugout after his go-ahead solo home run in the fifth inning / Photo by Thomas Grant, Jr

River Bluff 8, Stratford 3

Weston Grant drove in three runs and University of South Carolina commit Thomas Powell struck out nine in six innings to lead the Gators.

Up next for River Bluff (21-6) is Sumter Thursday at home.

Brookland-Cayce 8, Battery Creek 1

B.J. Etheridge struck out nine and walked one in six hitless innings pitched for the Bearcats.

Ty Marshall and Tanner Staton each drove in two runs and Ryan McMillian had two hits as the Bearcats capitalized off four Dolphin errors for the victory.

Brookland-Cayce will next play host to either Waccamaw or Camden on Thursday.

Saluda 8, Batesburg-Leesville 7

The Tigers scored two runs in the bottom of the seventh on an RBI walk by Emanuel Dominguez and walkoff wild pitch run scored by Josh Ulher.

Saluda travels to Gray Collegiate, while the Panthers face Landrum in an elimination game on Thursday.

Blythewood 6, J.L. Mann 2

Macon Leppart drove in two runs, Carson Weathers had two hits and an RBI and Landon Penfield struck out six to lead the Bengals.

They will next play host to Hillcrest at 6:30 p.m. Thursday.

Gray Collegiate 10, Landrum 0 (5 innings)

Blaine Redmond drove in three runs and was the winning pitcher for the War Eagles.

They next play host to Saluda at 8 p.m. Thursday.

Pelion 10, W.J. Keenan 0

Hunter Cherry struck out eight batters to lead the Panthers to victory.

They will next travel to Blacksburg on Thursday.

Other Midlands Playoff Scores:

Sumter 7, West Ashley 6

Chapin 18, Socastee 0

Dreher 13, Phillip Simmons 6

Carolina Forest 11, White Knoll 4

North Central 15, Andrews 4

Beaufort 4, Gilbert 0

T.L. Hanna 4, Dutch Fork 3 (8 innings)

Dixie 15, C.A. Johnson 0