By Thomas Grant Jr.
This past Saturday saw the Lexington County Blowfish hold Fort Jackson Night as it invited nearly 1,000 troops for a night of baseball and post-game fireworks.
What they and the fans in attendance also came away with was a memorable 11-10 comeback victory that served as a highlight of the first half of the Coastal Plain League season.
The Macon Bacon jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the top of third inning. Charles Dean highlighted the rally with a 3-run homer off starter Matthew Garris.
Lexington County picked up a run in the bottom of the inning, only for Macon to score two more runs in the top of the fourth to take a 7-1 lead.
An RBI single by Ashby Vining of Gilbert in the bottom of the fourth would be the starting point of the comeback. After Lucas Highberger threw a scoreless top of the fourth inning, the Blowfish responded with a 4-run rally.
Breon Ishmael started things with an RBI double. Following a pitching change, J.P. Perez drove in a run with a sacrifice fly to make it 7-4.
Back-to-back walks to Vining and Brookland-Cayce graduate Parker Mergo of Clemson set up an opportunity for Walker Mitchell. The River Bluff graduate delivered with a 2-run double to cut the deficit to 7-6.
As Mergo raced towards home plate, he managed to elude the tag at home plate and still managed to reach back to touch the base to score.
Macon Bacon picked up two runs in the Top 6th to go up 9-6. With one out in the Bottom 6th, Jonathan Jaime and Ishmael reached on singles.
Perez came to the plate and brought the soldiers and fans to their feet. He connected on a drive that sailed just over the rightfield wall to tie the game at 9-9.
The two teams each posted a run in the Top 7th. It remained tied going into the Bottom 9th and Lexington County looked to send the fans home happy.
With the bases loaded and one out, Ishmael sailed a flyball to leftfield which went far enough to score Busch from third base to end the game.
LEXINGTON COUNTY BLOWFISH SCHEDULE
THURSDAY – Exhibition Game with Glowfish 7:05 p.m.
FRIDAY – at Florence 7 p.m.
SATURDAY – FLORENCE 7:05 p.m.
MONDAY – BOONE 7:05 p.m.
WEDNESDAY – MACON 7:05 p.m.
