By Lonnie Turner

Week three is in the books in Dixie Youth Baseball and the ACE Hardware Tigers are all alone atop the Minor League with a perfect 6-0 record, while in Major League action, the Dillon Meat Center Reds are a game ahead of the Dillon Dental Giants with a 5-1 record.

The Giants are 4-2 after dropping a 12-9 decision to the Physician Healthcare Yankees (3-3) on Friday evening. The Dillon Internal Medicine Hurricanes are also 3-3 and the Feed & Farm Rangers are 0-6.

In the Minors, the Burger King Braves are holding on to second place with a 5-1 record and the Pepsi Cola Blue Jays are 1-5 while the McLeod Health Marlins are at 0-6.

A change has been made in the schedule after three weeks. Originally there were three games played on Monday (a Minor League game at 5:30, followed by two Major League games beginning at 6:45), but due to the late hour of completion of the final game of the night, the Minor League game scheduled for Mondays have been moved to Thursday evening staring at 5:30 p.m. The new schedule has two Majors on Monday; two Minors on Tuesday; a Minor and a Major on Thursday; and a Minor and two Majors on Friday. All first games will begin nightly at 5:30 p.m. for the rest of the season.

Minor League
Friday, April 24

ACE Hardware Tigers 5, McLeod Health Marlins 2

The Tigers scored four runs in the top of the first inning to defeat the Marlins 5-2 in five innings. Zach Hunt doubled in the first two runs and Jacob English followed with another double that scored Hunt.

Grady Bethea led off the Marlins part of the first with a triple and scored on a wild pitch, and in the fifth, Leo Garcia doubled and scored on a single by Jason Gaddy.

Mason Miller and Temarrian Davis had hits for the winners and Eli Henderson hit safely for the Marlins.

Monday, April 27
Burger King Braves 7, McLeod Health Marlins 4

The Marlins took an early first inning 2-0 lead only to have the Braves come back with three runs in the bottom of the inning to lead 3-2. The lead changed in the third on two walks and a pair of singles by Eli Henderson and Brendon Miles, but back came the Marlins with singles by Hayden Perritt and Ahmad German to tie the game at 4-4. The Braves put together hits by William Simmons and back to back singles from Perritt and German to score three more runs to take a 7-4 lead into the last at bat for the Marlins.

Nate Ford, in relief of Brody Cook, managed to shut down the Marlins for the win. Leo Garcia also had a base hit in a losing cause. German was 3-for-3 to lead the Braves and Ford added a two-base hit.

Tuesday, April 28
ACE Hardware Tigers 7, McLeod Health Marlins 6

In probably the most exciting game of the week, the Marlins and Tigers played a see saw game that was decided in the bottom of the sixth inning. McLeod took a two run lead in the first on a triple by Brendon Miles and consecutive walks to Eli Henderson, Leo Garcia, and Hayden Lane. Braeden Arnette was on base when Miles hit his triple. The Tigers tied the game in the bottom of the inning with Mason Miller hitting safely with Colby Furniss on base.

ACE took the lead in the bottom of the second, but the Marlins came back to regain the lead in the third with Henderson getting an RBI single. The lead was short lived when Zach Hunt tripled and Temarrian Davis doubled to account for three runs and a 6-4 lead.

McLeod tied the game at 6-6 when Miles hit his second extra-base hit of the evening to send the game to the sixth inning. The Marlins managed to get an out, but Jacob English doubled and Davis drove him home with a single to win the game and keep the Tigers with an undefeated season.

Jessie Altman doubled for the Marlins and for the winners, Davis was 3-for-3 and Miller was 2-for-3.

Burger King Braves 11, Pepsi-Cola Blue Jays 4

The Braves would score all the runs they would need in their first at bat to stop the Blue Jays 11-4 in the last game on Tuesday. Bryce Patterson began the evening with one of his three hits driving in Hayden Perritt with the first run and Nate Ford followed with a triple, but was thrown out at the plate attempting to stretch his hit into an inside the park home run. Following two walks and a single by Gavin Kelly, Cody Altman’s bases loaded double cleared the bases before he was thrown out at third base. The Braves added four more runs in the third inning and two more in the fourth of the time shortened game.

In addition to Patterson’s perfect game at the plate, Ford’s RBI double in the fourth gave him a perfect 2-for-2 and Kelly singled twice in three at bats. Brody Cook also added a base hit for the Braves. The Blue Jays had only two hits off starting pitcher Patterson, one, a two-run triple and the other a single by Jeremy Byrd, both accounting for three runs in the third inning.
ACE Hardware Tigers 14, Pepsi-Cola Blue Jays 4

In the final game of the week in the Minors, the Tigers took advantage of 11 walks to stop the Pepsi Blue Jays with the mercy rule, 14-4.

The Tigers scored 10 runs in the first two innings with Temarrian Davis leading the way with an in the park home run that scored two. He also added a couple of singles that drove in three runs, giving him a total of five RBIs for the game. Zach Hunt was two for three, including a double. Jacob English added a double while six runners reached base on walks and there was one hit batter. The Blue Jays had three hits, including two by Jeremy Byrd. Qua-Qua Morrison had the other in the third inning when the Jays picked up their four runs.

Major League

With the Reds holding down first place, the hottest team for the week in the Majors was the Physicians Healthcare Yankees, winning two straight, beating the Hurricanes 14-4 on Thursday and taking care of the Giants 12-9 on Friday. The three game winning run by the Yankees began on Friday of week two, when they stopped the Rangers 6-4.

Bo-Bo McKinnon has been the hottest batter through the run with nine hits in 10 at-bats, including five RBIs from his leadoff position in the line up. Ahmari Bruce has been the winning pitcher in the first two wins with relief help from McKinnon and McKinnon was the winning hurler in Friday’s win over the Giants, pitching the final four innings.

The Reds lost for the first time on Monday when Noah Carter shut them out on two hits and bounced back with a 10-7 win over the winless Rangers on Friday. Caleb Oakley led the Giants with two hits, including an RBI triple and the Mullins transfer has six hits in his last nine times to the plate.

The Hurricanes split last week’s two games, beating the Rangers and losing to the Yankees. The Rangers are still looking for their first win and will take on the Giants in Monday’s first game. The Reds and Yankees will match up in the second of two games on Monday.

In the Minors, Burger King will have two extra days to prepare for the front-running ACE Hardware Tigers, since the schedule has been revised, moving the Monday Minor games to Thursdays for the remainder of the season.