Three Rivers showdown on Thursday is set; Eagles dispatch St. Pauls 12-4

ELIZABETHTOWN — Zach Meares and Raymond Autry hammered deep triples.

Meares, RaSean McKoy and Drew Sholar flashed leather in the first three innings. And, there he was again, Meares coming to the mound in the fifth inning to squelch an uprising with his team behind.

East Bladen on Tuesday set up a showdown Thursday for first place in the Three Rivers Conference, rallying past St. Pauls 12-4 on Senior Night at Russell Priest Field. The Eagles have one league loss with three to play, and Thursday foe and host East Columbus has none with four to play.

First pitch on the unlit field in Lake Waccamaw is 5 p.m.

“Huge win,” second-year head coach Grant Pait said. “After playing like we did Friday, and then coming out a couple of innings flat tonight, that’s a big one.”

They all are in a pennant race whereby each team only plays the others once, and East Bladen only plays two of the eight at home. Win out, however, and the Eagles are ticketed for the 2-A state playoffs where they advanced to the fourth round — state quarterfinals — last time the postseason was contested in 2019.

The Eagles are 5-1 in the Three Rivers Conference, 8-4 overall. East Columbus — scheduled guest of Red Springs tonight — is 4-0 and 7-2, respectively, while West Columbus is 4-1 and 6-4. Whiteville has climbed back in the race at 3-2 and 6-4. Fairmont, which beat East Bladen on Friday, is 3-3 and 5-5. Two teams that are 2-A are guaranteed berths, and one 1-A team.

Eight seniors took a bow beforehand and started — Meares, McKoy, Sholar, Jacob Priest, Lefrederick Wooten, Brady Hollingsworth, Tyler Hill and Grayson Clark. Sophomore Evan Pait, son of the coach, joined them and hurled two batters into the fifth inning when a walk and single chased him.

Meares promptly picked off Josh Henderson at first base, got two groundouts, then struck out four of the next six he faced in succession. He picked up win No. 5 against no losses, dropped his earned run average to a microscopic 0.27 (one earned run, 26 innings), pushed his strikeouts to walk ratio to 63-to-9, and moved his scoreless innings streak to 18.

In addition to Meares’ pickoff, Pait had one of KeMarion Baldwin. Meares, playing second base, snagged a liner from Isaac Garner to end the second inning when the Bulldogs had plated three runs; McKoy in roomy center field and Sholar running toward the right field corner in foul territory had key catches the next inning.

Trailing 4-2 coming to bat in the fifth, East Bladen chased crafty right-hander Stevie Smith with Meares’ triple to right past Baldwin and Priest’s single to center. After 14 batters in the inning, the Eagles had nine runs, four hits, a three-run triple from Autry, and picked up their final two runs when Baldwin dropped a fly ball from Wooten’s bat with two outs.

Autry added a run-scoring single in the sixth to finish 2-for-2 with four RBI. Priest was 2-for-3 with an RBI and reached base four times; Meares was 2-for-5; Hollingsworth was never retired, getting a hit and reaching base four times; and Sholar, Clark, McKoy and junior Ethan Johnson each had a hit and RBI.

Smith only allowed seven hits for the Bulldogs, but the game quickly unraveled behind him. St. Pauls exited 1-4 in the league and 5-5 overall.

“He had a deceptive delivery,” Grant Pait said of Smith. “He threw well.”

And, to beat the Gators and stay in place for a postseason berth, he said his team would need to improve.

“We have to play better than we played against them last time, and play better than we did tonight,” he said. “This time of year, it’s time to play.”