By Lonnie Turner

The Dillon Kiwanis Dixie Youth Baseball regular season best of three championship series goes down to the wire on Wednesday evening after the James Lockemy Justice Rangers and Dillon Meat Center Reds split the first two games Tuesday.

In the opening game, the Rangers scored eight runs in the top of the final inning before the Reds defense could record an out to break open a tightly contested 1-0 game and went on to shut out the Reds 9-0. Tristian Brigman faced only one over the minimum batters in three innings and John Rourke completed the Ranger shutout, allowing only one hit, a lead-off single in the bottom of the fifth by Chase Dudney.

The Reds loaded the bases in the fourth inning but failed to score. The only run prior to the big fifth inning came in the first at bat for the Rangers. With one out, Brigman’s fly ball was dropped and Rourke followed with a double to the fence to score the un-earned run that held up until the fifth.

Consecutive hits by Brigman, Rourke, Kobe King, Richard Alderman, and Jaques Page highlighted the fifth before the first out and following that out were Cole Carroll and Jackson Stone with singles. Rourke, King, and Alderman had two hits each to pace the Rangers and Cooper Schilsky doubled in the eleven-hit attack.

After a 30 minute break, the Reds broke out of their scoring slump with three runs in the top of the first inning of the second game on hits by Barnes Causey and Noah Henderson, a walk, and a fielder’s choice by Jared Ivey. The Reds added a run in the second before the Rangers scored two in the bottom of the fourth to cut the Reds lead in half, 4-2.

Cooper Schilsky tripled and scored along with John Rourke when Kobe King reached base on an error. Richard Alderman had a two-out single, but was left stranded on second base. The Reds scored two more runs in the top of the fifth when Barnes Causey was intentionally walked with two out and Noah Henderson followed with a base hit that scored Micah Garcia, who had led off the inning with a single. Collin Hamilton’s single scored Causey, who went to the mound in the bottom of the inning and retired three of the four batters that he faced.

The 6-2 win forces a third game to determine the championship, which was scheduled to be played Wednesday evening at 7:00 p.m.

Photos by Johnnie Daniels/THE DILLON HERALD. Click the images below to view at full size!