Lexington made a strong push Friday to earn a berth in the SC Diamond Invitational final. 

Instead, the tournament’s host program led by Wildcat alumnus Banks Faulkner will play for the title. 

Blythewood will face Dorman for the championship at 11 am Saturday at Lexington High School. 

Blythewood defeated Westwood 11-1 in 6 innings. This was preceded by the Wildcats’ 21-2 rout of TL Hanna. 

Since Lexington, Blythewood and TL Hanna all finished 2-1, a tiebreaker based on runs allowed was used to determine the champion. This worked in favor of the Bengals, whose total of 13 was 5 less than the Wildcats and 16 less than the Yellow Jackets.

Over at the Brookland-Cayce High School bracket, Greenville and Dorman were the only teams to finish 2-1. Because of the head-to-head tiebreaker, the Cavaliers earned the spot in the finals. 

LEXINGTON 21, WESTWOOD 2 
The 2nd ranked Wildcats won their 2nd straight game at the SC Diamond Invitational in dominating fashion Friday at home. 
Lexington defeated TL Hanna 21-2 in 4 innings. In pounding out a season-high in runs and scoring over 20 for the 2nd time this season, Lexington (11-2) pounded out 12 hits, drew 14 walks and managed just 1 strikeout against the Yellow Jackets.
The run total loss eliminated the Yellow Jackets, who were 2-0 at the Invitational entering the game, for a berth in Saturday's final. Meanwhile, Lexington needs Blythewood to either lose or win by 6 or more runs to play host to the final. 
As the visiting team since TL Hanna entered the game undefeated, the Wildcats jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the 1st inning. Wells Sykes led off with a single and scored on Ryan Toll's double. After a Nathan Hall walk, he and Toll scored on Blake Knight's double.
Knight promptly scored on Bennett Robinson's RBI triple. The hitting parade continued in the top 2nd as Hall sent a 3-1 pitch over the centerfield fall to make it 6-0.
As part of Lexington's homeplate celebrations following a home run, Hall was tossed a miniature basketball to slam dunk into a portable basket held by a teammate.
A Brantley Stroud single and Gage Goodwin RBI sacrifice extended the lead to 8-2. 
The Yellow Jackets scored both of their runs in the Bottom 2nd. The Wildcats proceeded to score 13 unanswered runs, including 9 in the 4th inning to close out the game on the mercy rule.
Reserves Branden Fournel had a 2-run single, Patrick Kirven drew an RBI walk and Brantley Armstrong had an RBI double during the rally. 
Knight and Stroud each finished with 2 hits and 3 RBI and Toll had 2 RBI for Lexington. 
On the mound, University of South Carolina commit Cal Herndon allowed just 2 hits and struck out 2 in 3 innings of work. Jeremy Zeltcer allowed just 1 walk and no hits in a scoreless 4th inning.

Greenville 4, Brookland-Cayce 3
A 3-0 lead was slowly erased by the Red Raiders to earn them an opportunity at playing for the SC Diamond Invitational final at Lexington High School.
Brookland-Cayce took a 2-0 lead in the 1st after 2 baserunners scored on a error following a groundball hit by Ty Marshall. The Bearcats added a run in the Top 2nd on a RBI double by Skylar King.
An error by Tanner Staton enabled Rocco Reid to score for the Red Raiders in the Bottom 3rd. Carter Johnson then hit a 2-out RBI single in the same inning to make it 3-2.
An inning later, Donovan Ford stole homeplate to tie the game. In the Bottom 6th, Tyler Spence and Trevor Lipscomb reached bases on singles and Spence scored after Aubrey Richardson misplayed Reid's groundball at 1st base.
Brookland-Cayce threatened in its last at-bat with runners at 1st and 2nd with 2 outs. Lipscomb, who relieved starter Caleb Givens in the 2nd inning, got Marshall to fly out to end the game.
The loss eliminated the Bearcats from playing for the Invitational final.

Dorman 12, Chapin 4

TJ White had a quiet 1st 2 days at Brookland-Cayce.

On Friday, the All-State senior commit to Indiana University erupted for 6 RBI on 2, 3-run homers over the rightfield fence. 

The 1st homer put the Cavaliers ahead 5-3 in the Bottom 5th. The 2nd was part of a 7-run rally which sealed the victory and denied Chapin a berth in the final.

Connor Droze was 3-3 with 2 RBI and a home run and Tyler Gist added 2 RBI for Dorman.

Foster Apple had 2 hits and 2 RBI and Josh Green had 2 hits for Chapin. 

Blythewood 11, Westwood 1 (6 innings)

Landon Penfield and Justin Flemming each had 2 hits and an RBI and Camden Watts and Watson Saunders combined for 6 strikeouts in 6 scoreless innings for the 3rd ranked Bengals.

The Redhawks dropped to 0-3 at the Invitational. 

Saturday’s schedule 

(AT LEXINGTON HS)

Blythewood vs. Dorman 11 am 

Greenville at Lexington 2 pm 

(AT BROOKLAND-CAYCE HS)

Westwood at Brookland-Cayce 11 am 

Chapin vs. TL Hanna 2 pm