By Lonnie Turner

Just one week from the halfway point of the Kiwanis Dixie Youth Baseball season, the Dillon Meat Center Reds (5-1) enjoy a 2-game lead over the James Lockemy Justice Rangers (3-3) in the Major League while the Dillon Family Dental Giants and Internal Medicine Hurricanes are both 3-games back with 2 wins and 4 losses.

In the Minors, the Pepsi-Cola Blue Jays remain the only undefeated team with a 6-0 record with the McLeod Health Marlins (4-3) lurking two games off the pace. The Burger King Braves (2-4) and Physicians Healthcare Pirates (2-4) are tied for third place with the True Value Tigers are fourth with one win through six games.

In the Majors, John Rourke of the Rangers finds himself in first place on the batting chart with a 0.625 batting average and more impressively sporting a 72.7 percent on-base percentage. The Hurricanes are represented in second place by Ryan Stephens who is tied with Collin Hamilton of the Reds with seven base hits apiece. Both players are tied on the chart with 0.538 batting averages. In the Minors Noah Carter of the Pirates, who has missed the past two games because of an injury, tops the chart with a 0.625 average and a 75.0 on-base percentage. Two Braves, Ty Huggins and Cooper Lane, hitting 0.556 and 0.545 respectively, are holding down second and third place in the Minors with Bo-Bo McKinnon of Pepsi batting at a 0.533 clip.
Summary of games played since Tuesday of last week:

Minor League

Tuesday, April 23
McLeod Health Marlins 10, Physicians Healthcare Pirates 8

Kwinton Hunt’s inside the park home run in the bottom of the third inning climaxed a 7-run come from behind rally to lead the Marlins to a 10-8 win over the Pirates in Tuesday’s first of two games. Austin Coward also accounted for three runs with a bases loaded walk in the first inning and a two-run single in the big third. Trent Johnson was the winning pitcher with nine strikeouts and Nathan Hyler, one of three pitchers for the Pirates took the loss. Johnson doubled for the winners and in a losing cause, Joey “Cadillac” Hunt knocked in a pair of runs with two doubles and Aaron Clewis and had two hits. Josh Brown also doubled for the Pirates.

Burger King Braves 6, True Value Tigers 5

A four-run first inning highlighted a 6-5 win by the Braves over the Tigers in Tuesday’s second game. Doubles by Ty Huggins and Cooper Lane sandwiched a triple by D.J. Brogdon to drive in two runs and Felix Torres hit a single to drive in another before the final out in the inning. Torres had a second hit in the fourth inning to lead the Braves to victory. Patrick Christian and Dylan Windham had the only hits for the Tigers.

Thursday, April 25
Pepsi-Cola Blue Jays 8, Physicians Healthcare Pirates 5

Charlie Nash Collins and Nigel George combined to drive in five runs to lead the Blue Jays to their fifth victory of the season against no defeats in an 8-5 win over the Pirates. Collins doubled in the first to give the Jays a quick 2-0 lead and added another hit to send an insurance run across the plate in the fourth inning. Jon-Michael Davis also with two hits as the winners pounded out nine safeties. Others with hits were Bo-Bo McKinnon (double), Caleb Boykin (single), Khris Hunt (single) and Kyle Rowell (single). The Pirates had only two hits, back to back singles in the bottom of the last inning by Quamez Graves and Justice Ladson.

Friday, April 26
Pepsi-Cola Blue Jays 11, True Value Tigers 4

For the second straight night, the Blue Jays belted out nine base hits and enjoyed an 11-4 win over the Tigers to go up 6-0 for the season. The Tigers struck first sending eight batters to the plate to take a 4-0 lead into the bottom of the first with Ahmari Bruce hitting an inside the park home run, but with their hitting shoes laced up another notch, in the bottom of the inning, the Jays got a double from Kris Allen and singles by Khris Hunt, Jon-Michael Davis, Kyle Rowell and Aaron Sipka to take the lead, 6-4. Caleb Boykin started on the mound for the Jays and shut the door on the Tigers after the rocky start, while his teammates put two runs across the plate in the second and three more in the third to complete the scoring. Hunt and Charlie Nash Collins collected two hits apiece for the winners and Boykin had one of two singles in the second inning. Andrew Bryant was perfect at the plate for the Tigers with a double and two singles in three at-bats and Masen Furr was 2 for 2 with a run driven in. Sha’kyi Wheeler added a single in the big first inning for the Tigers.

Major League

Thursday, April 25
Dillon Meat Center Reds 4, Internal Medicine Hurricanes 1

One disastrous inning marred a perfectly thrown pitchers duel between the Reds hurler Hunter Pittman and Hurricane mounds man, Jackson Hayes, in Thursday’s lone Major League game. With both pitchers throwing nothing but fast balls, each recorded five strikeouts and walked one through the first two innings. Jackson led off the third inning a lined a shot over left field fence to take a 1-0 lead that would last only until the top of the fourth. With one out, Noah Henderson walked and Barnes Causey was safe at first on a hit. Then the storm doors swung wide open with errant throws that resulted in a 2-1 lead for the Reds. With most of the damage done, the Reds put another run on the scoreboard when Collin Hamilton singled and scored on an error on Jared Ivey’s ground ball. Causey led off the top of the sixth inning with a double that went to the wall and scored on Hamilton’s second hit of the game. Pittman, who retired from the mound after three innings, allowed two hits, struck out eight and didn’t walk a batter and reliever Noah Henderson came on to get seven on strikes and walked only two. The Hurricanes staged a would be rally in the fifth with base runners on second and third with one out, but Henderson retired the final two batter of the inning to get the save for Pittman. Trent McNeill and Dray Thompson had the other two hits for the Hurricanes. For the winners Causey and Hamilton had two hits apiece and Pittman doubled in two trips to the plate.

Friday, April 26
Internal Medicine Hurricanes 5, James Lockemy Justice Rangers 2

In Thursday’s first Major League game, the Hurricanes bounced back from the heartbreaking loss to the Reds, to beat the Rangers, 5-2, behind the four-hit pitching of Jared Darmon. After falling behind, 1-0 on a bunt single by Josh Sessions and an error that allowed him to score, the Hurricanes sent four batters to the plate with one out in the third before Jackson Hayes lined a screamer to the left field fence to highlight a four-run rally and a 4-1 lead. Tristian Brigman’s double in the next at-bat for the Rangers, resulted in a single run when John Rourke bounced out to the first baseman. Before the allotted time of 80 minutes ran out in the bottom of the fifth inning, the Hurricanes put one more run on the boar on a double by Ryan Stephens and a single by Darmon. Stephens led the Canes with two hits and Rourke joined Kolby Watts with the third and fourth hits for the Rangers.

Dillon Meat Center Reds 10, Dillon Family Dental Giants 0

The Reds shut out the Giants, 10-0, on a combined one-hitter by Noah Henderson and Hunter Pittman in Friday’s nightcap. Jared Ivey, Collin Hamilton and Micah Garcia led the eleven-hit attack by the reds with a combined total of seven hits. Ivey had three singles in as many times at bat. Hamilton doubled and singled and Garcia drove in two runs with two singles. Others with hits were Henderson, Pittman, MalachI Bember and slapping a triple was Jamarius Bethea. Henderson was the winning pitcher and Scotty Sweat, who left the mound after taking a line drive off his leg, took the loss.

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