Whiteville wins District 2 championship

CLARKTON — Whiteville defeated Bladen County for an 8-3 victory in the Dixie Youth Baseball District 2 Majors Championship on Wednesday night. Bladen County kept things close through the first three innings with Drake Gause and Jayden Bethea on top of the mound. Whiteville extended a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the fourth inning with a cracking solo home run from Conrad Martinez to create some breathing room between them and their opponents.

Whiteville was able to get one more run across the plate before Bethea and the Bladen County defense forced a groundout at first base. Ty’lae Rose stood on top of the mound and delivered heat across the plate to hold Bladen County scoreless at the top of the fifth inning. The tides of momentum fully swung in favor of Whiteville after Rose stepped up to the plate and smashed a 3-run home run over the centerfield fence on two outs to make the game 8-0. Bethea got the next batter out with a pop-up to give Bladen County a fighting chance in their last at-bat of the night.

Left-hander Luke McLean came into the game as relief for Rose to close the inning out for Whiteville at the top of the sixth. He started off by walking Bethea in the lead-off position and Landon Gause followed it up with a single to center field to put two runners on. McLean went up against the next Bladen County batter and blew a strikeout past him for the first out. Gaston Russ took a fastball to the body to load the bases up for Bladen County with two outs remaining.

McLean walked D. Gause to force Bethea across the plate on walks to give Bladen County their first run of the night. Sawyer King stood tall in the batter’s box and slapped an RBI single toward the outfield to bring home L. Gause. Whiteville’s defense scrambled to make a play on the ball blasted by King and a fielding error occurred that allowed Bladen County to get another runner across home plate. McLean shook the pressure off his shoulders and got back to work with Brooks Carroll being the next man up.

He delivered some solid pitching to catch Carroll standing still for his second strikeout of the inning and forced a groundout to secure the trophy. D. Gause started the game for Bladen County and put in 2.1 innings of work for three earned, on three hits, and one strikeout. Bethea finished the remaining 3.1 innings with five runs on three hits and two strikeouts.