BROOKLET — A tworun first inning gave second- ranked Pierce County a lead it would not relinquish en route to a 16-4 victory here Tuesday over Southeast Bulloch.
PCHS (22-3) extended its winning streak to 15 games while finishing off the season sweep of the Yellow Jackets (10-11). The Bears posted an 11-1 victory February 27 at home.
Pierce County, which blew open a 7-4 game with a nine-run seventh, had its way against four SEB hurlers, banging out 13 hits and scoring 14 earned runs.
Beck Hodges led four players with a multi-hit game going 4-for-5. Dylan Johnson (2-for-3), Christian Osbourne (2-for-4) and Bryson Smith (2-for-4) joined the list.
Jonathan Stone (4 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 K, 1 BB) made the first start of his career. Kolton Brogdon (2 IP, 3 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 5 K, 0 BB, 4 HBP) and Colt Hickox (1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 BB, 1 HBP) worked in relief.
The Bears used consecutive sacrifice flies to score in the second. Stone (1for-1) drew a leadoff walk and was removed for courtesy runner James Alonso. Dylan Johnson legged out his ensuing sacrifice bunt putting two runners on.
After both Alonso and Johnson moved up a passed ball, Brantley Willis lifted the first sacrifice fly scoring Alonso, with Johnson tagging and moving to third. Osbourne followed, lifting an 0-2 pitch to left plating Johnson for the 2-0 lead.
PCHS scored three runs in the third to open up a 50 advantage. Grayson Arington (1-for-2) started the inning with a double scoring two batters later on a Hodges one-out single.
Jack McClellan (1-for-4) followed a Hodges theft of second and advancement to third on a wild pitch with a walk. After McClellan stole second, Stone ripped a two-run double for the five-run lead.
Pierce County extended the margin to 6-0 with a run in the fourth. Osbourne led off with a triple into the rightfield corner, with courtesy runner Garrett Stevenson scoring on Bryson Smith’s ensuing groundout.
SEB answered with its first run in the bottom of the inning getting a twoout single to keep the inning alive and a run-scoring double to cut the deficit to 6-1.
After leaving the bases loaded in the fifth, the Bears padded the margin with a run in the sixth for a 7-1 advantage. Smith lined a leadoff single, moved into scoring position on Arington’s sacrifice bunt, advanced to third and scored on a Chance Williams sacrifice fly.
The Yellow Jackets climbed to within 7-4 with a three-run bottom of the inning. Three consecutive one-outs drove home the first run. A dropped third strike allowed the second run to score. A bases loaded hit batter forced home the final run.
PCHS put the game away with a nine-run seventh with 13 batters going to the play. Osbourne and Smith lined consecutive one-out, run-scoring singles with an error allowing another run to cross the plate for a 10-4 lead.
A bases loaded, runscoring single by Hodges and a bases clearing triple by McClellan pushed the margin to 14-4. After Mc-Clellan scored on a wild pitch, Stone followed with a walk and moved around to third on consecutive passed balls. He scored on Johnson’s sacrifice fly for the 12-run victory.
