Conference Carolinas

BOX SCORE | FLORENCE, S.C. – Barton won the inaugural Conference Carolinas Baseball Developmental Championship 6-1 over Erskine at Sparrow Stadium on the campus of Francis Marion on Monday night.
 
The event, which is a unique championship opportunity for developmental teams within Conference Carolinas, consisted of a preliminary round at Barton and Erskine on April 4 with the winners of each preliminary round playing in the championship at Francis Marion.
 
Barton defeated Belmont Abbey 6-5 and 11-9 to advance to the championship while Erskine defeated Emmanuel 2-0 and King 13-8 to earn their spot in the title game. 
 
Barton got on the board first in the bottom of the first as right fielder Jake Hairr led off with a walk, stole second, moved to third on a flyout and scored on a Nevin Norville sacrifice fly. The Bulldogs added to their lead in the fifth as Jadyn Marrs singled with one out, Hairr drew another walk and Mateo Martinez doubled to left to plate Marrs and Hairr for a 3-0 lead. 
 
Erskine broke through in the sixth as catcher Julio Illidge led off with a walk and scored three batters later on a Danny Diaz RBI single. 
 
Barton broke the game open in the seventh and Marrs was at the center of the action again. He reached on a one out, two-base error and stole third. An intentional walk and stolen base by Martinez led to another unearned run on a Flying Fleet error. Zach Drozdowski singled through the right side to make it 5-1 and Norville plated another with a single to center for the final margin. 
 
Connor Patterson was named tournament Most Outstanding Player as he tossed five shutout innings with one hit and four strikeouts to earn the win for the Bulldogs. 
 
More information can be found on the tournament webpage here. 
 
Earlier this fall Conference Carolinas announced that a developmental championship would be held in men’s and women’s soccer, men’s basketball and baseball. The developmental teams are composed of student-athletes that have either not competed at the varsity level in 2021-22 or have competed sparingly at the varsity level by the time of the championship.