The Lexington County Blowfish were set to host the Coastal Plain League All-Star Show July 18 and July 19 and during that time, the team will get a much-deserved break.

The first half of the Coastal Plain League season has already come and gone and the Blowfish are already 10 games into their second half slate and are off to a blistering 8-2 start.

But now that the All-Star break is here, it’s appropriate to look back on how the team has performed so far this season and what to look for next season.

Blowfish enter All-Star break on a hot streak

Before a loss to the Forest City Owls in the first of a doubleheader on July 14, the Blowfish were riding one of the best winning streaks in the Coastal Plain League all season with eight consecutive wins.
Out of those eight games, two were the last pair of games in the first half of the season to give them a final first half record of 12-10. That first half record was good enough to finish third in the west division behind both the Macon Bacon and Forest City Owls.

But the Blowfish have come out of the second half gates hot and have won the last eight of 10 and go into the All-Star break in first place in the west in the second half standings by two and a half games. After the winning streak and hot second half start, the Blowfish have the best overall record in the division by one full game.

Since June 30, the Blowfish are scoring more than eight runs a game and the pitching staff has held opponents to four or less runs in six of those games.
Before the winning streak, the Blowfish were sitting just over .500 at 11-10. The winning streak and recent success have propelled them into legitimate second half contention.

Blowfish set to have five representatives in All-Star Game

Being well represented in an All-Star Game is a classic sign of mid-season baseball prosperity and for the Blowfish, they have five players named to the roster with two players being named starters.
Catcher Ryan Ouzts was named the starting catcher for the west as he’s put on an impressive power display so far this season. He currently leads the team in home runs with six on the year which ties him for the fifth most in the Coastal Plain League.

Ouzts has also driven in a team high 20 runs while also collecting a pair of doubles. He’s hitting a solid .250 on the season and behind the plate as a catcher, he leads all Blowfish catchers in innings caught with 94 and has committed only one error.

Infielder Cooper Blauser was named to the All-Star team after being one of the more reliable hitters on the team this season. He’s hitting an astounding .348 and has the highest batting average on the team for anyone with more than 50 at-bats. Blauser, who plays his college ball at Clemson, has been a key part of the success of the Blowfish ever since he joined the team after the college baseball season and has also been one of the best in the entire league at drawing walks. Since July 3 alone, Blauser has drawn 11 walks in nine games.

Third baseman Zach Cowart has been named as an All-Star fill-in and will get to appear as a Blowfish representative July 19. So far this season, he’s hitting a blistering .404 in his 47 at-bats and despite only appearing in 14 games so far, he’s second on the team in RBI with 19. During the Blowfish hot streak since June 30, Cowart had four multi-hit games with half of them being three-hit games.

Dariyan Pendergrass was named as a starting outfielder for the west division all-stars after his blazing speed and improved bat impressed many around the league and has made him one of the most fun players to watch in the Coastal Plain League.

Pendergrass has stolen 27 bases in 21 games so far this season and is second in the league in that category behind only Macon’s Antonio Brown who has stolen six more bases but has appeared in nine more games. Pendergrass is hitting .329 on the season so far and has become much more reliable as a hitter who can consistently get on base and best utilize his next level speed.

Cade Bouknight is the only Blowfish pitcher to be named to the All-Star team. Bouknight, who is only months removed from his high school graduation from Batesburg-Leesville, leads the team in pitching wins with three. In a little over 20 innings of work, Bouknight has struck out 17 batters while only walking eight. He’s also posted an impressive earned run average of 2.21 and is almost giving up less than a walk or hit per each inning pitched.

Looking ahead

In the final stretch of the season, the Blowfish will play only four opponents in CPL play: the Macon Bacon, Florence Flamingos, Boone Bigfoots and Forest City Owls.

They’ll play the Bacon five more times this year, with three of those coming at home. The Flamingos are scheduled four more times, with three of those games being in Florence and one being in Lexington. The Blowfish will square off against the Owls two more times, with both games being in Forest City, N.C. and lastly, the Blowfish face the Bigfoots only one more time, which will take place in Lexington.

In total, the Blowfish have 12 more CPL games to play, with six of them being at home. The Blowfish also have an exhibition with the Catawba Valley Stars on the schedule for July 29 as well.