Chowan and Erskine Advance to 2023 Conference Carolinas Developmental Baseball Championship Final
BOX SCORES | DUE WEST, S.C./BELMONT, N.C.– Chowan and Erskine advanced through the preliminary rounds of the 2023 Conference Carolinas Developmental Baseball Championship on Monday, April 3.
The Hawks and Flying Fleet will square off in Florence, South Carolina to play in the 2023 Conference Carolinas Developmental Baseball Championship final on Monday, April 17 at 6 p.m. inside Sparrow Stadium at the Griffin Athletic Complex on the campus of Francis Marion.
In the Belmont Abbey portion of the bracket at Abbey Yard in Belmont, North Carolina, Chowan defeated Barton, 3-0, then took down Francis Marion, 9-4. The Patriots won their first game 13-0 over the host Crusaders and the Bulldogs finished the day with a 10-8 win over Belmont Abbey.
The Patriots opened play with the shutout win in game one of the bracket as they scored four times in the first, once in the second and eight times in the fourth with 11 hits in the contest. Left-handed pitcher Jackson Campbell tossed four shutout innings and allowed two hits and a walk with four strikeouts in the win. Designated hitter Cole Teply paced the offense as he went 3-for-4 with four RBIs and two runs scored while catcher Peyton Britt was also 3-for-3 with two RBIs.
In game two, lefty Timothy Blackman tossed six scoreless, no-hit innings with six walks and six strikeouts and shortstop Ben Bausas drove in a pair of runs with a single up the middle in the first for what proved to be all the offense the Hawks would need in the 3-0 win. A sacrifice fly in the sixth accounted for the final margin as the Bulldogs were limited to just one hit in the game.
Due to weather concerns, the preliminary round championship was played as game three and it was Chowan who earned a trip to the tournament final on April 17 with the 9-4 win over Francis Marion. Four different Hawks combined to strike out nine Patriots in the win while Aidan Palacios and Jacob Walker led the 13-hit attack with three hits each. Palacios scored twice and drove in four runs while Walker scored three times in the contest. Chowan got a run in each of the first three innings, scored three times in the fourth and three more in the sixth while FMU scored a run in each of the second and third innings and two more in the sixth.
In the consolation game, Barton earned a 10-8 win over the host Crusaders. The Bulldogs scored first with a run in the second before the Crusaders took a 3-1 lead in the fourth. Barton then broke the game open with nine runs in the fifth for a 10-3 advantage. Belmont Abbey fought back with five runs in the final two innings but fell just short. Barton tallied nine hits led by Ryan Drag who went 3-for-4 with two runs scored and an RBI from the leadoff spot.
Erskine advanced through the round-robin bracket contested at Grier Field in Due West, South Carolina that featured the Flying Fleet, Emmanuel and King. Erskine started their efforts on the day with a 9-4 victory over Emmanuel. King defeated the Lions in game two, 6-0, before Erskine earned a come-from-behind, 7-6, victory over King to earn a second straight trip to the title game.
In the first game of the bracket, the Flying Fleet scored seven runs on three hits in the bottom of the first inning and never felt threatened the rest of the way. The Lions scored one in the second and three times in the sixth while Erskine added two more tallies in the fifth. Right-fielder Brandon Abdala paced the Flying Fleet’s six-hit attack with two hits, one run and four RBIs. Emmanuel outhit Erskine 7-6, but the Flying Fleet drew six walks in the win.
Walks were the undoing again for the Lions in game two as the Lions outhit King, 5-2, but the Tornado drew eight walks and capitalized on five Emmanuel errors. King scored three times in the first inning with one hit and an error and posted three more runs in the fourth without a hit. Left-handed Carson Sanner earned the win as he allowed three hits over six shutout innings with four strikeouts in the win.
With each team 1-0, the winner-take-all contest came down to the seventh inning as Erskine scored six runs over the final two innings for the 7-6 victory and their second trip to the tournament finale. The Tornado built a 6-1 lead as Jacob Eargle drove in a pair of runs in the first and Matthew Swigert added to the lead in the second. King added three more runs on three hits in the sixth as J.T. Foster, Eargle and Austin Goldie each had an RBI. The Flying Fleet rally began in the sixth as a single and two walks loaded the bases, Zion Clonts singled in a run, Nicholas Moya singled in two more, with two outs, and Davis Cardew made it 6-5 with another single. Down to their final out in the seventh, Erskine’s Banks Starbuck reached on an infield single and Jurden D’Arnault doubled him home to tie the score. Clonts then singled through the left side for the game-winning RBI.
To learn more and to see all of the stats from the preliminary rounds of play, please visit the official tournament website here.