MARYVILLE, Tenn. - After rain postponed the start of the CCS Tournament by over 24 hours, the Belhaven Baseball team kicked off their tournament run on Thursday in style with a comfortable 8-1 victory over Huntingdon.

The Blazers, who entered the tournament as the No. 2 seed, used a huge 6th inning in which they plated six runs, to take down the Hawks and advance to the winner's bracket on Friday. Both teams were held quiet in the early innings with Colton Sylvester navigating early baserunner traffic to post scoreless frames in the first two innings.

Huntingdon then opened the scoring with a run in the 3rd on an RBI base hit while the Belhaven bats continued to be held in check. Belhaven answered in the 4th though with a run driven in by Hunter Harrell after Tristan Pearson and Preston Conlee reached to open the inning. 

The game remained locked at 1-1 through the top of the 6th as Sylvester worked around a pair of hits to open that frame, stranding the go-ahead run in scoring position. Belhaven then opened the home half of the 6th with back-to-back base hits and following a defensive miscue by the Hawks, took the lead as Harrell drove in a pair with an RBI hit. 

Noah Foster then helped produce another run in the inning after an infield single saw a throwing error from the Hawks that plated a run and put Belhaven up 4-1. Belhaven would then turn double their lead as Eli Britt crushed a three-run homer to left field plating Cole Fletcher and Noah Foster.

Sylvester continued to dominate on the mound and after picking up an extra insurance run on an RBI single from Owen Abney in the 7th, cruised to a complete game victory for the Green and Gold.

Notable Performances

Colton Sylvester (W, 7-1): 9.0 IP, 6 H, 1 ER, 5 K
Hunter Harrell: 1-4, 3 RBI
Eli Britt: 1-4, HR, 3 RBI
Thomas Hollingsworth: 2-4

The Blazers now await the winner of No. 3 Piedmont vs. No. 4 LaGrange who they will face on Friday at 3:00 PM Central. 

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