HS BSB: Davenport deals as Eagles advance to district title game

Beaufort High baseball will get another shot at region rival May River. James Davenport pitched a gem and the Eagles scraped together just enough offense Wednesday night to beat visiting South Florence 2-1 and advance to the SCHSL Class 4A District 4 championship game.

Davenport wasn’t overpowering, but he was effective, limiting the Bruins to six hits and three walks with three strikeouts and carrying a shutout into the seventh. South Florence had the tying run on with one out and pushed him into scoring position with two down, but Davenport dug deep and induced a popout to keep the Eagles’ season alive. 

The Beaufort pitcher also started a rally in the third, leading off with a single before being lifted for a courtesy runner. Matt Bornsheuer sacrificed Chase McKelvey to second, and Rush Riley singled to put runners at the corners with one out before William Winburn came through with a grounder to third to push across the first run of the game. 

The Eagles manufactured another run in the fourth, as Colin Peterson drew a leadoff walk and moved up on a pair of wild pitches before Josh Denton delivered a sacrifice fly to right to make it 2-0. 

Davenport masterfully worked out of jams in the fourth and fifth, getting inning-ending double plays to erase walks. The Eagles had a chance to add some cushion when they loaded the bases with two outs in the sixth, but they came up empty, keeping the two-run margin intact.

After a groundout to start the inning, South Florence’s JR Williams blasted a solo shot to left to cut the deficit in half, and an error put the tying run on base with one out. Davenport induced another ground ball for the second out, but a two-out single from Aydin Palmer moved the tying run into scoring position and put the go-ahead run on base. On his 99th pitch of the night, Davenport got a popup to right, which Bornsheuer put away to clinch it.

Winburn and Denton each had a single and an RBI, and Riley, Peterson, and Davenport added hits for the Eagles.

Beaufort (14-9) will travel to May River on Friday needing to beat the Sharks twice to advance to next week’s Lower State championship series. The pitching matchup is likely to be a good one with game one playoff starters Darin Horn of May River and Wes Graves of Beaufort lined up to start.