Lexington baseball, softball defeat rival River Bluff to earn top spots in region
Jones Bell picked the right time to have one of his best weeks of the season.
The Lexington junior homered and drove in four runs as the Wildcats defeated River Bluff, 5-3, on Thursday in high school baseball action.
“It means a lot to me,” Bell said. “Coach (Brian) Hucks said we had to play hard against this team and win out to win the region. … I just played hard, practiced hard and the coaches said just stay through the ball and that is what I did today.”
With the win, Lexington, River Bluff and Chapin all finish in a tie in Region 4-5A, but the Wildcats will be the No. 1 seed from the region and earn a first-round bye in the Class 5A Division I playoffs that begin next month. Chapin is the No. 2 seed and River Bluff third.
River Bluff and Lexington face each other Friday, but it doesn’t count in the region standings. The two teams finish out their regular seasons next week in non-region contests.
Being the top seed from the region seemed like a long shot earlier this season, as the Wildcats went through a losing streak and didn’t have a full roster as multiple players served suspensions from a hazing incident right before the season.
“You don’t understand why you are going through rough times. It kind of reveals itself,” Hucks said. “I feel like everything we have gone through prepared us for this. Our guys stayed composed. River Bluff had a chance to get some crooked numbers in the last couple of innings, but we made plays when we had to.”
But with a full roster back, Hucks hopes his teams will be able to make a deep postseason run. Lexington won the 2024 state championship and finished runner-up to James Island last year.
Lexington jumped on top with two runs in the first and third inning, the last two coming on Bell’s two-run homer to make it 4-0.
“It was a 1-1 count and I knew a change-up was coming,” Bell said. “He threw me a change-up down the middle and I just pulled it.”
Bell finished 4 for 6 with a homer and six RBI in the two games this week. He also made a strong defensive play for the second out in the seventh inning.
River Bluff fought back and got it within 5-3 in the sixth inning on Banks Alexander’s RBI ground out. But reliever Brady Azarieh got Dominick Norton to ground out to end the inning as the Gators left two runners on base.
Azarieh set down River Bluff in order in the bottom of the seventh to pick up the save in relief of Reider Carlson. The College of Charleston commit went five innings and allowed one earned run on four hits in five innings of work.
Sam Turner led River Bluff with two hits and two RBIs.
Lexington softball wins region in thriller
Mya Drennon’s sacrifice fly in the top of the eighth gave Lexington’s softball team a 16-15 come-from-behind win in extra innings over River Bluff.
With the win, the Wildcats win the outright region title. The teams entered the game with 8-1 records in the region. Lexington swept the season series, winning 15-2 on March 31.
Lexington trailed 15-10 after five innings, but scored five runs in the sixth inning to tie it up. In the eighth, Livi Warren led off with a double off the wall and moved over to third on a ground out. Drennon brought her home with a fly out to center field.
Haley Jones pitched a scoreless eighth to pick up the win.
Warren was 4 for 4 with a homer and four RBIs. Naomi Little also had four hits and four RBIs. Drennon was 1 for 5 with 3 RBIs. Payton Gonce was 2 for 5 with three RBIs and Illyana Adams hit a solo homer.
Alexis Jodie and Caroline Tucker each homered and drove in three runs for River Bluff. Jodie finished with three hits. Blaire Gillcrese and Blythe Sanders also had three RBIs for the Gators, who finished second in the region for just the second time in program history.
