By Lonnie Turner

Well, it finally happened! We played all night at the Kiwanis baseball facility Monday. The game between Francis Marion and Lake View began at 8:30 and ended at three minutes past midnight when Shaheed Dawkins hit a bases loaded single to drive Mason Floyd across the plate to eke out a walk marathon 14-13 victory for Lake View. In the first game of the evening, the Minor League Dillon All Stars defeated McLeod Park, 16-5, in five innings.

The tournament is a 5-team round robin format with teams from Dillon, Marion, Lake View, Francis Marion, and McLeod Park participating to determine which two teams will advance to the District Tournament in Mullins on Friday. Rain washed out Friday’s first two games, which were rescheduled for Saturday morning.

In Saturday’s first game, Marion scored seven runs in the bottom of the fifth inning to get a 13-3 win over Lake View in a game that lasted two hours and 54 minutes. Ya’veon Brunson led Lake View at the plate with a perfect 2-for-2 performance. Also hitting safely were Jordan Wiggins, Chris Stepp, Noah Cribb, and Coleby Sinclair with Sinclair picking up the win on the mound.

Bryce Patterson and Zach Hunt pitched a combined no-hitter in the second game as the Dillon All Stars shut out Francis Marion 15-0 in four innings. Hunt led Dillon with two out of the park home runs in three times at bat, while Nate Ford cleared the fence for a two-run homer in the first inning and cleared the bases with an inside the park grand slam homer in the second. He also singled to give him a 3-3 performance. Also adding hits were Holden Matthews, Mason Miller, Jeremy Byrd, and Bryce Patterson.

Dillon scored five runs in the first and second innings to take a 10-3 lead into the fifth inning and erupted for six more in the fifth to take a 16-5 win over McLeod Park in Monday’s first game. Mason Miller singled and tripled driving in three runs and Eli Henderson singled and doubled to lead Dillon’s eight hit attack. Zach Hunt also belted a 2-run triple. Jeremy Byrd added a double and Jacob English joined Holden Matthews with one single each.

Through four games, Dillon is 2-0; Marion, 1-0; Lake View 1-1, McLeod Park, 0-1 and Francis Marion, 0-2. Dillon was scheduled to play Lake View Tuesday night at 8 p.m. and are not scheduled for Wednesday. They end the tournament with an 8 o’clock game against Marion on Thursday!