The Lexington County Blowfish (9-7) tied their weekend series with the Florence Flamingos (7-11) with a 5-2 win in front of a sold out crowd featuring soldiers from Fort Jackson. 

Blowfish head coach KC Brown believes the visiting soldiers provided the team with a big boost of energy.

“I would credit that [the win] to the energy of the crowd,” he said. “With it being Fort Jackson night, I think the players really fed off that and it’s really the little things that put you over the hump so I gotta give credit to the crowd and that energy. That was awesome.”

The Blowfish struck first in the bottom of the third inning. Dariyan Pendrgrass’ speed got him on base after a well fielded grounder at second base couldn’t throw him out at first. Pendergrass, like he normally does, stole second base and with a wild throw by the catcher going into the outfield, he took third base with ease. Ty Dooley drew a walk and stole second base himself to put two runners in scoring position with no outs. Ty Jackson’s deep hit sacrifice fly to center scored Pendergrass and moved Dooley to third base. Landry Mead’s hard hit grounder up the middle scored Dooley and provided the Blowfish with a 2-0 lead after three innings.

The Flamingos finally got to Blowfish starting pitcher Austin Williamson in the fifth inning. Jake Ogden’s grounder took a funky hop down the first base line and went into the outfield for a triple which scored Alex Rodgers. Noah Stout’s sacrifice fly during the next at-bat tied things up at two. The Flamingos continued to threaten more runs with runners on the corners and only one out. However, Blowfish catcher Zander Buchan threw out Carson Garner at second base and a flyout during the next at-bat minimized the damage.

Lexington County responded in the bottom half of the fifth inning. Jackson drew a walk to start the inning and immediately swiped second and third base. During the next at-bat, Dalton Reeves crushed a ground rule double over the center field fence to score Jackson and give the Blowfish a 3-2 lead going into the sixth inning. 

“That’s the thing you know, he’s gonna strike out at times but the last two balls that he hit, the last one was 101 miles per hour off the bat, makes us ok with the strikeouts because we know that stuff is going to show up,” Brown said about Reeves’ performance after the game. “So no matter where it goes, as long as you hit it hard, good things are going to happen.”

After Jack Whitlock came in relief of Williamson and immediately retired the side with two strikeouts, the Blowfish added to their lead. Pendergrass drew a walk with two outs in the bottom of the sixth inning and stole his second base of the game with his swiping of second base. With a good lead at second, Pendergrass was able to score after Dooley’s hard hit grounder couldn’t be handled by the Flamingos second baseman. Jackson struck out to end the inning but not without the Blowfish taking a 4-2 lead into the seventh. 

The Flamingos got dangerously close to erasing the Blowfish lead in the top of the eighth. The visitors didn’t provide new relief pitcher Beckett White with a warm introduction to the game as Ethan Harden tattooed a double down the right field line. A walk during the next at-bat put runners on first and second with zero outs. Dooley fielded a ground ball and secured the force out at third but a wild pitch moved two Flamingo runners to second and third with one out and without the possibility of an infield double play. 

With all of the pressure on White and chaos ensuing in the background as free hot dogs were being chucked to all of the soldiers in the stands, he calmly struck out Francesco Barberieri and Reid Brown to get out of the inning unscathed. 

“There were hot dogs flying around and there’s just a lot of stuff happening in the stands so for him to lock in, that was awesome,” Brown said. “I wasn’t worried about the double play because he’s a big strikeout pitcher so that really wasn’t a factor. As long as he dialed in, which he did, I knew we’d be fine.”

The Blowfish picked up an insurance run in the bottom of the eighth when Jackson’s hard hit double to right scored Warren Holzemer, who originally led off the inning with a ground rule double.

Slaide Natureman came in to pitch in the top of the ninth and retired the side to secure the win by a final score of 5-2.