Northwestern evens series with River Bluff

Northwestwern coach Mitch Walters thought his team lost its focus after giving up three runs in the top of the fifth Tuesday night.

The Trojans got it back quickly as they responded with eight runs in the bottom of the fifth on their way to a 10-4 win against River Bluff to even the best-of-three Class 5A baseball series.

The deciding game will be played Saturday at 7 p.m. at Blythewood. Northwestern won the coin flip and will be the home team.

“I told them boys you guys got nine outs left, you can either play them or sit and sulk,” Walters said. “And they got after it and did a good job. They finally started swinging the bats. And we did what we needed to do.”

River Bluff, which won the opening game in 10 innings Saturday, looked to be in a good spot to win its first state title in baseball. The Gators scored three runs in the top of the fifth to take a 4-1 lead. Aaron Adams had an RBI single and the Gators also benefited from a wild pitch, passed ball and two Northwestern errors in the inning

But in the bottom of the fifth inning, the Trojans answered by sending 12 men to the plate and went through three River Bluff pitchers. Will Hagood had two hits in the inning, including a bases-clearing double. Rob Hughes, Andrew Shipman and Davis Goodyear also had RBI in the inning.

Hughes, a Furman commit, picked up the win for Northwestern. South Carolina commit Wesley Sweatt pitched the final two innings.

“Sometimes, baseball is cruel,” River Bluff coach Mark Bonnette said. “There were a couple balls that were hit off the caps and they found a couple gaps. That’s baseball.”

Stephen Kight took the loss for River Bluff. Kight, who had the game-winning hit in the first game, came in for starter Ricky Williams in the fifth inning after the first two runners reached base.

Kight gave up six runs on five hits in  2/3 of an inning. He also had an RBI in the top of the first.

“We liked the matchup with Stephen, and it just didn’t work out,” Bonnette said. “But that is why you win game one, so if it happens, you’ve still got another game.”

Bonnette is giving his team Wednesday off to regroup before preparing for Saturday’s game.

“Saturday is our game seven,” Bonnette said. “We would have loved to win here. But if you would have told me that on May 20 we would have one game to win a state championship, I would have taken it.”

This story was originally published May 16, 2017 at 10:19 PM.