On Tuesday night, PC won the coin toss for a bye on Wednesday.
On Thursday night, The Patrick County Dixie Youth O’Zone All-Star team was crowned State Champions. In a decisive fashion, PC defeated Nelson County 11-0 in 4 quick innings to take the State Title. Led by Tucker Swails on the mound, PC completely shut down Nelson County. Over the 4 innings, Tucker gave up 0 hits while striking out 9 batters and after the 1st inning, PC did not allow a baserunner to Nelson County. Offensively, the bats for PC were hot from the beginning of the game. In the bottom of the first, PC jumped on the Nelson team.
Martin Sawyers singled to center field setting up a towering 2 run home run over the left field foul pole. Then back to back singles by Toby Perkins and Bubba Taylor pushed the lead to 3-0 after the 1st.
The 2nd inning was relatively quiet with a lone hit by Noah Jessup but in the 3rd, PC lit up the scoreboard with 8 runs to put Nelson County away.
Gavin Fain led off the inning with a single to left followed by Martin Sawyer getting hit by a pitch. Swails then singled off the wall in left field to load the bases. Following a strikeout, Taylor and Stuart Callahan both hit balls that were misplayed, pushing the score to 5-0.
Braedon Augustine then singled to left making it 6-0 and then with the bases loaded, Hunter Pendleton delivered a bases clearing double to left field, making the score 9-0. Fain then singled for his 2nd hit of the inning followed by a 2 run single to right by Martin Sawyers to make it 11-0.
In total, PC scored 11 runs on 12 hits in only 3 offensive innings. The PC All-Stars now advance to the 2018 Dixie Youth World Series, hosted by Lumberton, N.C. at the Pennington Athletic Complex. Patrick County will open up play on Saturday, August 4th at 3:30 p.m. against the Texas state champions. Between now and the first weekend in August, the All-Stars will continue practicing regularly. They will also be fundraising to help with the expense of the trip.
From the coaches, players and parents, PC Dixie Baseball would like to thank all the businesses and families who have generously supported the team to this point through 7 days back and forth to Dublin, and 7 days straight in South Hill. The support of the community has been nothing short of amazing and has made this team’s journey that much more special.
