A.C. Flora baseball opens championship series with a win

The A.C. Flora baseball team moved one step closer to winning another state championship.

Willis Bethea hit a two-run homer and threw out Dez Good at the plate to end the game as the Falcons defeated South Pointe, 9-7, on Saturday in game one of the Class 4A Baseball Championship series.

Game two is Tuesday at 7 p.m. at South Pointe. A.C. Flora (24-8) is looking for its fourth state title in the past five years.

Bethea, Lane Botkin and Andrew Walker each had two RBIs for the Falcons, who finished with nine hits.

Charles Chapman picked up the win. He went six innings, allowed three runs, none earned, and struck out two. Harmon Cox pitched the final  1/3 to get the save.

A.C. Flora led 9-3 going into the seventh, but the Stallions scored four times and had the tying run at the plate. Pinch hitter DJ Hartline singled to right field but Bethea threw out Good as he tried to score.

Good led South Pointe (25-8) with two hits and two RBIs. Bo Taylor added a double and drove in two runs.

Ty Good, who also had two hits, took the loss. He gave up six earned runs in 5 1/3 innings.

A.C. Flora scored three runs in the first, two coming on Bethea’s home run. After South Pointe cut the lead to 3-2, the Falcons scored twice in the fourth and four times in the bottom of the sixth, when Walker had a two-run double.