By Lonnie Turner

The Hartsville Northern All Stars beat McLeod Park twice Thursday morning, 11-0 and 11-1, to win the South Carolina Majors Dixie Youth Baseball State Tournament at the City of Dillon Sports Complex and will represent South Carolina in the World Series in Lexington next week.

“Ain’t no way Hartsville (Northern) will beat McLeod Park twice!” most people were saying last Thursday as the 2015 Majors State Dixie Youth Baseball Tournament was winding down. After all, the youngsters from Florence had already hit a dozen home runs, which was just one away from tying the State Tournament record.

McLeod Park had just beaten Hartsville Northern, 4-2, sparked by a 3-run homer off the bat of clean-up hitter Dylan Snider and a solo shot by Anthony Cox in Tuesday night’s second game. Hartsville also had solo homers from Connor Strickland and A’Shani McFarland, but the loss dropped them into the loser’s bracket for a match-up with Dillon Kiwanis in Wednesday night’s 5:30 game.

We’ll get to the championship game after reporting on the Dillon Kiwanis and Hartsville Northern contest. Noah Carter hit a 1-2 pitch over the left field fence with two out to give the defending State Champions a first inning 1-0 lead. Carter, the pitcher of record, started on the mound and gave up a pair of singles through the first two innings, but gave up four consecutive singles to Charlie Graham, Tal Lucas, Dari’Yan Pendergrass, and A’Shani McFarland to go up 2-1 in the third. Gage Hunt went to the mound and was perfect through the fifth inning, striking out three of the six batters he faced. Trent Johnson led off the top of the sixth with a solid hit to left, but was thrown out at second when Josh Brown grounded into a fielder’s choice to the third baseman. With two out, Nigel George beat out a base hit sending Brown to third and on a 1-1 pitch to Caleb Oakley, Hartsville reliever Chris Brigman threw a wild pitch into the ground that careened off the back stop. The catcher retrieved the ball and tossed it high to Brigman covering the plate. Brown was called out at the plate on a close call to end the game.

Now with four teams remaining in the tournament, Parks Field of Summerville played McLeod Park in Wednesday’s 8 o’clock game. With one loss, Summerville went to their “junk” pitcher, Ryan Lark, who threw mostly off-speed pitches to get the home run hitters off balance…and it worked. While once-beaten Hartsville Northern looked on, McLeod Park struggled to eke out a 5-4 victory, even though they collected home runs by Wyatt Fulton and Colin Grooms.

At 10 on Thursday, McLeod Park was clearly the favorite after defeating Hartsville the day before, 4-2, but with Owen Taylor retiring the first 10 batters he faced with a lot of curves and change-ups, Hartsville went to work at the plate. Dari’Yan Peterson led off the bottom of the first with a double and McLeod starter Tom Faile loaded the bases with a walk and a hit batter. Tyler Lawhon jumped on the first pitch after the bases were loaded for a stand-up double to send Pendergrass and Taylor across the plate for a 2-0 lead. After Faile reloaded the bases hitting Ryan Elmore with a pitch, McIver Wallace hit a grand slam homer over the right field fence for a 6-0 lead after one inning.

In the second inning, with relief pitcher Dylan Snyder on the mound, Jarrett Elmore hit his first pitch over the center field fence to give Hartsville a 7-0 bulge. Two more runs scored on a fielder’s choice and an error before the second inning would end. In the fourth, after Wallace singled off Kyle Grice to start the inning, Keyshawn McDonald cleared the fence with a home run to end the game with the ten-run mercy rule, 11-0. McLeod Park managed only one hit, a two out single in the fourth.

After taking about an hour off, the two teams met to play the “if” game to determine the Championship. As the visiting team in the second game, Hartsville jumped on George Floyd for three runs in the top of the first on singles by A’Shani McFarland and Jenkins McCullum and a double by Tyler Lawhon to take a 3-0 lead. In the bottom of the second inning, Dylan Snyder went long on 3-2 pitch to cut the lead to 3-1. That McLeod Park homer tied the 2009 State Tournament record of 13 home runs in a tournament set by Surfside Beach. After that, it was all Hartsville Northern. In the fourth, leading 3-1, Keyshawn McDonald and Jarrett Elmore hit back-to-back home runs to spark a 4-run outburst to extend the lead to 8-1. Pendergrass would add another round-tripper in the fourth and Ryan Elmore ended the scoring with a solo homer in the top of the sixth for an 11-1 final score. Hartsville also had 11 hits in the contest.

As voted on by the officials and tournament staff, the All Stars from Turbeville were awarded the LM Joye Sportsmanship Trophy, which is one of most coveted awards in any Dixie Youth Baseball Tournament. Good sportsmanship involves such matters as fair play, keen rivalry, but careful observance of rules, courtesy and being gracious towards an opponent. The trophy, because of its importance, is the same size as the Championship Trophy. Mr L.M.’s son, LeBon Joye, the District 9 Director of Manning, made the presentation to the Turbeville coach and some of his players at the beginning of the Championship Awards Ceremony.

With weather a factor earlier in the week, Kevin Scott and his ground crew are commended for their outstanding work to get the fields in good playing condition.