FAYETTEVILLE – The Freedom Christian Academy Patriots defeated the East Bladen Eagles for a 8-7 victory last Saturday evening in Freedom’s Spring Break Invitational. The Patriots were led by senior Graysen Stafford with a 2-for-3 day at the plate and he was responsible for two RBI’s in the victory. East Bladen started Easton Bostic on the mound and Jayce Hatcher finished the game on top of the hill in the narrow defeat. Freedom Christian had four pitchers take the mound and they all combined for 11 strikeouts to snatch their 16th win of the season.
East Bladen won big against the Village Christian Knights for a 13-6 victory in day one of the invitational over the break. The Eagles junior pitcher Isaiah Lee was credited for the win last Friday over the Knights as they earned their ninth win of the season. They took on Wake Christian Academy on Monday to conclude their invitational appearance. The Clinton Darkhorses will welcome the Eagles upon their return from Spring Break and the two squads will duel in a non-conference match-up on April 28th.
The Eagles also finished their Waccamaw Conference schedule last week with a win and a defeat against the Whiteville Wolfpack. They finished in fourth-place at 7-4 in the Waccamaw Conference standings as they held a four game win streak before a 6-3 defeat to Whiteville. East Bladen’s remaining games will be a non-conference matchup against Clinton, East Duplin and West Bladen in the final week of the season.
Whiteville has two remaining conference games on their schedule against South Columbus for a home-and-away series to conclude their season. The Wolfpack currently hold the second-place spot in the standings with an 8-2 record. The South Columbus Stallions are in poll position to win the Waccamaw Conference as they sit atop the standings with a perfect 10-0 record. The Stallions will lock up the conference title and earn the top playoff seed in the conference with a single victory over Whiteville in the final week.
The East Columbus Gators will finish ahead of East Bladen in third to lock up the top seed for 1A schools in the Waccamaw Conference as they’ve posted a third-place record of 6-4. The Gators will clash with West Columbus for their final conference games of the season on April 29th and May 1st. Junior pitcher Gauge Simmons has posted a 1.15 ERA and has 49 strikeouts, while batting in 15 runs this season.