Baconton Charter outlasts Miller County in 10 innings

BACONTON — With the moon rising just above the pecan orchard beyond the right field fence, Morgan Bell knew he would be the last batter before the game would potentially be called by darkness at Baconton Charter’s Blazer Field Monday evening.

With runners on first and second, Bell ripped the first delivery he saw into left field and scored Logan Cain to end a 10-inning marathon with Miller County and help the Blazers to a 7-6 walk-off victory in a key Region 1-A game.

“It was a fastball right down the middle, right where I like it,” said Bell, who finished 3-for-6 with three RBIs.

Since Blazer Field has no lights, umpires had met to determine if the game needed to be halted for safety concerns.

“It was getting tough to see,” Baconton coach Bubber Birdsong said. “But I couldn’t see pulling them off the field after they left them stay on the field that long.”

The victory helped Baconton (16-4 overall, 15-2 Region 1-A) stay in the region championship discussion with just two weeks left in the regular season. Baconton also got even against Miller, who won the previous meeting 4-3 in Colquitt on March 2.

The Blazers hold a half-game lead in the loss column in the region standings with a home game against Randolph-Clay on Wednesday, followed by a trip to Donalsonville to face first-place Seminole County on Friday. Miller County (17-3, 17-3) had a three-game winning streak snapped.

“We still have some games left, but we’re giving ourselves a mathematical chance here at the end,” Birdsong said.

Baconton grabbed a 2-0 lead in the third inning. CJ Everson led off with a triple and scored on Bell’s RBI single. After a sacrifice bunt from Jackson Bostick, Spencer Culp’s sacrifice fly scored Bell.

But Miller erupted for five runs in the sixth, using Bo Mock’s single to score a pair of runs. Then Hudson Givens’ double two batters later scored two more runs to give the Pirates a commanding 5-2 lead.

However, Baconton answered with three in its half of the sixth, then forced extra innings when Culp struck out the side in the seventh. The right-hander earned the victory in relief, working five innings.

Each time Miller scored, Baconton answered.

Givens’ RBI single in the eighth scored Mock for the go-ahead run, but Bell delivered an RBI single in the bottom of the eighth to tie the game at 6.

Miller finished with 16 hits in the game, while Baconton had nine. Culp also finished 2-for-3 at the plate with an RBI.

Christopher Bruner finished with four hits for the Pirates, while Givens finished 3-for-4 with three RBIs.

“My team showed some resiliency … we kept battling and kept battling,” Birdsong said. “I thought we had lost the game two or three times, I thought we had won it two or three times. We kept plugging away. Us and Miller are evenly-matched. That is two good games we have played.”