The Long County Blue Tide baseball team took on the Bryan County Redskins in their first game back from spring break on Monday and jumped on the Redskins early for an 11-1 win.
Having already defeated the Redskins 10-3 in Pembroke on April 1, the Tide looked to do the same at home.
For the second straight home game, senior Jai Thomas took his leadoff at bat and ran with it as he blasted a home run over the left field wall to give his team an early 1-0 lead.
Roderick Randall, Shannon Filkins and Kenny Pickens all singled, with the former going down on a fielder’s choice. With one out, Filkins scored on an attempted pickoff at first base. After a walk to Landon Runyon, Elijah Lester reached on a dropped fly in center field, allowing two more runs to score. Lester scored following a passed ball and another Bryan County error for a 5-0 lead.
After Thomas singled and Randall reached on an error to start the second, Filkins laid down an impressive bunt for a single. This brought home Thomas to put the Tide up 6-0. Pickens plated another run with an out to make it 7-0.
In the bottom of the third, Creighton Rogers was hit by a pitch and moved to second on a Lester single. He advanced to third on a passed ball before Lester got caught in a rundown at first and second.
This allowed Rogers to score to put the Tide up 8-0 going into the fourth.
After Filkins went the first three innings on the mound, Anthony Bramwell gave up a single, walk and a double as Bryan County notched their only run in the fourth.
A second walk, which loaded the bases with just one out, brought Peyton Batt into the game to take over for Bramwell. Some solid defense behind Batt pulled the Tide out of the jam as they led 8-1 going into the bottom of the inning.
Thomas walked before Randall doubled to set up Filkins with runners in scoring position. He hit a sacrifice RBI to make the score 9-1.
Pickens followed him up with his own sacrifice RBI, his second of the game, to put the Tide up 10-1 going into the fifth inning.
Randall’s sacrifice RBI brought in Batt, who had singled to reach base, along with Thomas, and give the Tide a 10-run lead in the fifth, invoking the mercy rule.
With the win, the Tide move to 13-6 with their fifth straight win. They traveled to Ware County on Tuesday and will travel to play Camden County on Thursday to complete their non-region schedule.
They will start their final region series of the regular season April 16 as they take on the Calvary Day Cavaliers. A region sweep would give the Blue Tide the region championship for the first time since 2003.