NATURCHEM INVITATIONAL - Late rally lifts Lexington past River Bluff 6-5 in final

THOMAS GRANT JR.
chroniclesports@yahoo.com
Posted 3/8/20

The 5th annual Naturchem Invitational was delayed by 2 days because of inclimate weather.

It closed with 2 clear days of non-stop baseball action, capped Sunday by a dramatic finish between the …

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NATURCHEM INVITATIONAL - Late rally lifts Lexington past River Bluff 6-5 in final

Posted

The 5th annual Naturchem Invitational was delayed by 2 days because of inclimate weather.
It closed with 2 clear days of non-stop baseball action, capped Sunday by a dramatic finish between the tournament's co-organizers and biggest rivals. 
Lexington scored 3 runs with 2 outs in the bottom 6th to defeat River Bluff 6-5 in the final. It was the 1st tournament win for the Wildcats, who finished with a 4-0 record. 
"I'm so proud of this group," Lexington head coach Brian Hucks said. "We've been behind several games. There's just no quick in this team. We talked about our culture and what we believe in and they just fight to the last out. They were down this entire game, but they came back and got it down. I couldn't be more proud of them." 
River Bluff had a 3-0 lead through 3 innings. A pair of runs scored off passed balls at homeplate, something which went in Lexington's favor at the end of the game.
University of South Carolina signee David Cromer put the Wildcats on the board with a home run to leftfield in the bottom 4th. River Bluff made it 4-1 in the top 5th on a RBI fielder's choice by Prestone Sansone.
Lexington rallied for 2 runs in the bottom 5th. After Landon McMahan was hit by reliever Zach Cowart to lead off, he scored on All-Tournament team selection Ryan Toll's RBI triple. 
Tristan Allen, who pitched 7 innings in the 8-5 win over Summerville that sent Lexington to the Invitational final, followed with a RBI single.
River Bluff loaded the bases in the 6th and picked up a run a wild pitch by McMahan.
With runners on 1st and 2nd and 2 outs, McMahan loaded the bases after he was hit by Cowart. Facing a final strike, Toll sent a groundball through the infield into rightfield to bring home the game-tying runs.
All-Academic team selection Tristan Allen was at the plate when Cowart's 0-1 pitch went past his catcher. McMahan was then able to beat the tag at homeplate and was immediately mobbed by his teammates.
"It's a battle," River Bluff head coach Mark Bonnette said. "Every inning's tough. Every out's hard to get and, sometimes, that 3rd out is the hardest 1 to get. Free bases tonight caught up with us. Both teams kind of gave up several free bases and it was kind of who was going to take advantage of it the most."
River Bluff will face North Augusta at Segra Park Wednesday, followed by a trip to USC-Aiken to Thursday to meet Aiken High School.
Lexington will have 3 non-region games this week. It starts Wednesday at home against A.C. Flora, followed by two games at Segra Park Friday against Gilbert at 6:30 pm and Spring Valley the following day at 4:30 pm.
"This is what it's all about and this tournament prepares us for that," said Hucks about getting ready for even more intense Region 5-5A play. "We won't be in a situation in our region that we're not prepared for thanks to our region."

Lexington River Bluff baseball

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