Baseball: Late Game Rally Boosts Gators Past Carolina Forest

River Bluff scored two runs in the sixth and one in the seventh to sneak past Carolina Forest 3-2 in a playoff pitching duel Wednesday night at Carolina Forest High School. The win sends the Gators to Sumter on Friday to see who will emerge from District Four of the AAAAA-Division I playoffs to play for the Lower State Championship.

After three and a half scoreless innings, Carolina Forest, who gave River Bluff its only loss in this postseason a few nights back, put the first runs of the game on the board in the bottom of the fourth on a one-out double that brought in two base runners. The score remained 2-0 until River Bluff's turn to bat in the sixth.

During that inning, Sam Turner drew a walk and Carson Lloyd came in as a pinch runner. Then, Ashley Powell hit a two-out single to put a runner on first and second. Mac Raines delivered a single of his own, scoring Lloyd and moving Powell to third. Ab Wilkerson singled next to bring Powell home and tie the game 2-2.

In the top of the seventh, Banks Alexander started off with a leadoff walk for the Gators. Dominick Norton laid down a sacrifice bunt to move Alexander to second. One out later, Leo Zambrano drove a hard ground ball to left field, scoring Alexander and giving the Gators a 3-2 lead.

In their last at-bat, the Panthers went down in order, 1-2-3, on a fly out, a strikeout, and another fly out, to end the game.

Powell and Peyton Hewitt shared pitching duties in the win. Powell got the start and pitched three and a third solid innings, giving up two runs on just three hits and striking out five. Hewitt stuck out one and surrendered no hits in three and two-thirds scoreless innings in relief to pick up the win.

Gators at the plate:

With a loss earlier in the postseason, River Bluff must beat Sumter twice to advance to the Lower State Championship series. Sumter needs only win one. Friday night's game at Sumter is tentatively scheduled for 6 p.m. with a second game set for Saturday at River Bluff if needed.