By Lonnie Turner

The Dillon Meat Center Reds won for the fourth time this season to take over undisputed possession of first place in the Dillon Kiwanis DYB program. On Friday evening, Chandler Pittman scattered six hits and Gage Hunt belted his second out of the park home run to lead the Reds to a 13-3 win over the Dillon Internal Medicine Hurricanes in Major League action.

The Physicians Healthcare Yankees bested the Rangers, 6-4, in Friday’s first Major League game to pick up their first win of the season in four tries and the Rangers are still looking for their first victory. The Rangers scored four runs in the top of the fifth to take a 4-2 lead into the bottom of the inning, but consecutive hits by Bo-Bo McKinnon, Ahmari Huggins-Bruce, D-Mack Wilson, and Kyle Rowell regained the lead for the Yankees. McKinnon pitched the final inning (6th) and shut down the Rangers to take the pitching win, 6-4.

In the lone Minor League contest, the ACE Hardware Tigers (4-0) finished the week as the only unbeaten team with a 5-2 win over the McLeod Health Marlins. Zach Hunt and Jacob English hit back to back doubles in the first inning as the Tigers took a 4-run lead. Brady Bethea led off the bottom of the Marlin first with a triple and scored on a wild pitch to cut the lead to 4-1. Both teams scored another run with “Rainbo” Falanico reaching base on a fielder’s choice and scoring on a throwing error to give the Tigers a 5-1 lead in the third. Leo Garcia jumped on a pitch from Temarrian Davis to lead off the McLeod fifth with a double and scored when Jason Gaddy was safe on an infield hit.

In the Reds victory, five players had two or more base hits each with Nathan Hyler leading the way with a triple and three singles in four times at bat. Gage Hunt was right behind with a homer, a double, and a single in four trips to the plate. Justice Ladson added a pair of doubles to drive in three runs, Chandler Pittman had two hits, and Ethan Chestnut singled twice. Knox Jackson and Andrew Chestnut also had safeties in the 15-hit attack.

For the Hurricanes, Ty Huggins belted his first round-tripper out of the park with two outs in the bottom of the sixth to drive home Cooper Lane, who had led off the inning with a two-base hit. Lane had an earlier single to go 2-for-3 for the evening. Nigel George doubled to start the bottom of the first and was sent home with a solid single off the bat of Josh Brown. Caleb Hunt had the sixth hit for the ’Canes. Pittman picked up the win on the mound and Lane suffered the loss.

Minor League Summary:
Friday, April 17
Burger King Braves 8, Pepsi-Cola Blue Jays 1

Bryce Patterson and Nate Ford combined to pitch a no-hitter as the Braves scored an 8-1 victory over the Blue Jays last Friday evening. Gavin Kelly led the Braves at the plate with a pair of RBI singles and adding hits for the winners were Ford (1-for-1, Triple, 2 RBI); Patterson (1-for-1, Triple, 1 RBI); and Hayden Perritt (1-for-4, Single). Holden Matthews had the only hit for the Blue Jays, singling in the fourth.

Monday, April 20
Minor League
Burger King Braves 4, Pepsi-Cola Blue Jays 3

It took six innings for the Braves to pull out a 4-3 win over the Blue Jays last Monday. The Braves struck first with a run in the first, added another in the second and a third in the third before what proved to be the winning run in the top of the sixth inning. The Blue Jays fought back with a run in the fourth and two more in the final inning, before Bryce Patterson settled down to retire the last three batters he faced in the last at bat for the Jays. Hayden Perritt singled and scored the first run with Patterson getting the RBI and William Simmons walked in the second and scored on a fielder’s choice. Nate Ford drove in Patterson, who had walked, in the third, and Patterson’s infield hit scored Brody Cook with what proved to be the game winning run in the sixth. Holden Matthews tripled home Cades Williams and scored on a ground out to the pitcher in the bottom of the sixth for the Jays and Jeremy Byrd scored the Blue Jays other run on a throwing error.

Tuesday, April 21
ACE Hardware Tigers 6, Burger King Braves 2

The Tigers knocked the Braves from the ranks of the unbeaten with a 6-2 win in Tuesday’s first of two games. There were only seven hits in the contest with Burger King leading in that category with four, but the team committed five costly fielding errors that resulted in four runs being scored by the Tigers. For the winners, Mason Miller and Zach Hunt had doubles and Jacob English drove them both home, all in the sixth inning. In a losing cause, Ahmad German singled twice in three times to the plate and Bryce Patterson doubled in the first inning. Hayden Perritt had the only other hit for the Braves.

Pepsi-Cola Blue Jays 5, McLeod Health Marlins 2

The Blue Jays won for the first time this season, out-lasting the Marlins, 5-2, in Tuesday’s last game. The Jays scored three runs in the first inning that erased a 2-0 lead that the Marlins enjoyed to start the game. Jeremy Byrd’s bases loaded two-bagger cleared the bases to take a 3-2 lead and Luke King’s double drove in an insurance run in the third inning. The Marlins scored an unearned run in the fourth to get to within three runs, but that was as close as the team could get to overtaking the winners. Holden Matthews added a single for the Blue Jays.

Major League Summary
Friday, April 17
Dillon Meat Center Reds 7, Dillon Family Dental Giants 2

In a battle of unbeaten teams, the Reds came out with blazing bats to take a 4-0 lead in the top of the first inning against the Giants. Justice Ladson’s bases-clearing triple to the right corner of the park gave the Reds a quick lead and Austin Coward hit a two out single to send Ladson streaking across the plate with the fourth run of the inning. Knox Jackson singled home Chandler Pittman and Gage Hunt with two out in the second inning to add to the lead, 6-0, and a lone run on back to back hits by Andrew Chestnut and Coward gave the Reds a 7-0 lead before the Giants could muster a run. Noah Carter hit a three base hit with one out and scored the first Giant run when Caleb Oakley singled him home. Caleb Boykin’s single sent Oakley across the plate with the final run. Hunt got the win with 13 strike outs and walked three. Oakley suffered the loss. Nathan Hyler added a hit for the Reds.

Dillon Internal Medicine Hurricanes 8, Feed & Farm Rangers 4

The Hurricanes fought back with three runs after trailing the Rangers 2-0 in the third inning on a three-run double by Cooper Lane, but the Rangers picked up an unearned run in the fourth to tie when Aaron Clewis singled and scored on a fielding error. Lane swatted his second homer of the season, another three run shot to lead a five-run comeback in the fifth to take an 8-3 lead into the bottom of the fifth. After walking the leadoff hitter DJ Brogdon, Josh Brown was able to retire the side after giving up a run. Lane was 2-for-3 with six runs batted in and with singles were Reggie Graves, Que Singleton, and Brandon Bethea. Kris Hunt had two of the four hits allowed by Brown and Jordan Mew collected the other.

Monday, April 20
Dillon Family Dental 12, Feed & Farm Rangers 1

The Giants roared back from the loss to the Reds pounding out 12 hits to beat the Rangers, 12-1, on Monday. The top four hitters in the starting lineup had two or more hits each, including Noah Carter, who smacked a deep homer over the fence and added a double and single that scored three runs. He was awarded first on an interference call on the catcher in his fourth at bat which resulted in an RBI. Caleb Boykin had a couple of doubles and a single to account for two RBIs and lead-off batter Caleb Oakley singled and doubled a run home. Boykin pitched the final two innings for the Giants and didn’t allow a hit, while Oakley started and received the pitching win, allowing only three hits, singles by DJ Brogdon, Qua’mez Graves, and Trent Johnson. Other Giants with hits were Zy Charles and Brock Mack.

Dillon Meat Center Reds 5, Physicians Healthcare Yankees 2

The Yankees jumped on Gage Hunt for two runs in the top of the first inning in Monday’s second game and held the lead until the bottom of the fifth when Hunt hit a tape-measure grand slam home run that went well over both fences down the third base line to win the game, 5-2. The Reds scored the first run in the inning when Andrew Chestnut reached base safely on an error and Ethan Chestnut singled him home. The Yankees scored the first two runs when Bo-Bo McKinnon reached on an error and scored on an infield hit by Ahmari Huggins-Bruce, who also scored as the result of a passed ball. Hunt received the win on the mound, allowing only three hits and had credit for 16 strikeouts and only one walk. Hunt was 3-for-3 and for the Yankees, Huggins-Bruce was 2-for-3 and McKinnon had a single.

Thursday, April 23
Dillon Family Dental Giants 5, Dillon Internal Medicine Hurricanes 0

In Thursday’s single Major League game, the Giants, behind the one-hit pitching of Noah Carter, shut out the ‘Canes, 5-0, in a game that lasted only an hour and fifteen minutes. He allowed only two runners to reach base and one of those was thrown out at third by the catcher. He didn’t walk a batter and recorded 15 strikeouts. Caleb Oakley gave him the only run he would need when he doubled home Landarrian Johnson, who led off the third being hit by a pitch. Oakley scored on a passed ball. In the fifth inning Oakley again drove in Johnson, who led off the inning with a hit. Jaquan Smiling and Joshua Powers also scored in the inning and Carter struck out the side in the sixth. Cooper Lane doubled for the only hit off Carter.