Southside Christian takes game one of AAA championship series 14-1
By Neill Kirkpatrick
Special to the HSSR
Mt. Pleasant – Through the first three innings Saturday night’s first game of the AAA championship series was looking like it would a pitcher’s duel between Oceanside Collegiate’s Aiden Culler and Southside Christian’s CJ Aubuchon but that changed in the fourth and fifth innings as Southside Christian erupted for 13 runs to win game one 14-1 in five innings.
Game two will be Tuesday at Southside Christian. The Sabres can claim their fourth consecutive state championship with a win. An Oceanside win would force a deciding game three for the AAA state championship.
“We swung the bats well tonight. We struggled in the third a bit, made some adjustments in the fourth and were able to jump on them and put seven on the board. They made a few mistakes and we were able to take advantage. I’m just proud of our guys and their approach to the game,” said Southside Christian’s head coach Scott Freeman.
Oceanside Collegiate’s head coach Britt Reames said, “I told our guys we have another game so forget this and move on. This was a poorly executed game all around; we didn’t play defense, we didn’t hit, we didn’t pitch. It is hard to win a game when you don’t execute.”
The Sabres were able to manufacture a run in the first thanks to a Landshark error. Tyler Bolemon singled up the middle with one out.
Bennett Candler came in as a pinch runner and then got caught by Culler on an attempted pick off move, however, first basemen Aiden Brusman threw the ball into left field and Tyler Bolemon ended up on second base.
After Culler struck out the next better before Aubuchon singled to right driving Tyler to score the game’s first run.
Culler then took over the next two innings as he struck out five of the six batters he faced.
The Landsharks had a chance to get on the board in their half of the second as they loaded the bases on three walks with one out. Aubuchon struck out the next batter and then third basemen Cole Atkins made an outstanding play as he dove left and snagged the hard-hit ball and threw it to first for the third out of the inning.
The score was 1-0 Sabres heading into the fourth inning as Culler and Aubuchon had settled down to strike out 12 batters between them.
In the top of the fourth the state’s top ranked junior player Carson Bolemon led off with a single to left. Carson went to second on wild pitch before Aubuchon walked. Jacob Wiggs singled to drive in Carson. Mike Hotinski walked to load the bases.
Atkins kept the inning going as he singled in Aubuchon. Matt Cauthen walked to reload the bases for the Sabres. An Oceanside error scored Atkins before Tyler and Carson Bolemon drove in two runs each with a single and double respectively to give the Sabres 8-0 lead.
Oceanside attempted a comeback in the bottom of the fourth as Charlie Johnson led off the inning with a walk and then stole second base. Charlie Becker singled to move Johnson to third before he scored on a fielder’s choice.
Aubuchon then got the next two batters with a fly out to center and he struck out his sixth batter.
The top of fifth inning started well for the Landsharks, after Wiggs walked he was thrown out attempting to steal by Oceanside catcher Scott Henry. The next hitter struck out for the second out but then disaster struck for the Landsharks. Third basemen Cade Griffith lost a high fly ball in the lights and dropped the ball allowing Reeves Israel to reach base with two outs.
Then Landsharks relief pitcher Tyler Mellison could not find the strike zone as he walked six of the next seven batters he faced. During that stretch Cauthen had the only hit for the Sabres. When the dust settled, Sabres had but six more runs on the board to break open the game at 14-1.
Southside Christian brought in Chandler to finish the game
SC - 1 0 0 7 6 14
OC- 0 0 1 0 0 1
