By Lonnie Turner

Knox Jackson’s walk-off double in the bottom of the seventh inning lifted the McLeod Health Marlins to a 7-6 extra inning victory over the Burger King Braves on Monday to start the second half of the Kiwanis Dixie Youth Baseball season.

Stephen Johnson doubled with one out to set up the hit that cleared the center fielder’s head. With the score tied at 6-6 after five, Chandler Pittman was brought to the mound when reliever Austin Coward gave up two hits and walked a batter.

Working for only two innings, Pittman was the winning pitcher and in a heart-breaker, Cooper Lane was tagged with the loss, despite striking out 14 through the seven innings he spent on the mound for the Braves.

Johnson was perfect at the plate with three hits and walked in his first at-bat in the first inning. In addition to Jackson’s game winning RBI, he drove Johnson in to start a three-run rally in the fourth to pull to within two runs of the Braves which had built a 6-1 lead with five runs in their half of the inning. Jackson and Pittman had two hits apiece to go with Johnson’s three hits. Jordan Mew added a triple that scored Avery Hewitt with the third run in the fourth.

For Burger King, Gage Hunt went 3-for-3 and Lane was also perfect at the plate with two hits including a two-run double in a five run outburst in the fourth. Felix Torres doubled to account for the sixth hit for the Braves. The win puts the Marlins in first place with two games scheduled for Tuesday.

The Internal Medicine Hurricanes up-ended the first half Major League Champion James Lockemy Justice Rangers 6-5 in another tightly played game that followed.

The Canes took the early lead when Dray Thompson blasted his second homer of the season over the left field fence to spark a 4-run first inning. Teammate Ryan Stephens was on bases after hitting a one-out single as Thompson picked up two RBIs with just one swing of the bat. The Rangers picked away at the lead with one run in the bottom of the first and another in the second, and tied the game in the fourth before the Hurricanes scored the decisive run in the top of the fifth on consecutive singles by Trent McNeill, Stephens, and Thompson.

McNeill, Stephens and Thompson all had two hit performances at the plate. Jackson Stone led the Rangers with two hits, including a triple that scored Cole Carroll in the second and drove in Colby Watts with another hit in the three-run fourth. The only other hit for the Rangers was an RBI single by Kobe King in the first.

Jared Darmon became the pitcher of record for the Canes when he took the mound after the Rangers tied the game 5-5 in the bottom of the fourth inning. Starting pitcher Jackson Hayes left the mound with the game tied 5-5 and could neither be the winning or losing pitcher. Hayes allowed only three hits and struck out six, but he issued five free passes.

In Thursday’s match up in the Majors, the Dillon Meat Center Reds will be the home team against Giants and on Friday, the Rangers play the Reds in the late game. The Giants and Hurricanes will play at 6:45 on Friday.