The Bluffton All-Stars kicked off the Dixie Youth Baseball AAA (10U) World Series in impressive fashion Saturday, beating Georgia 13-3 in four innings in their tournament opener in Laurel, Mississippi.
Finn Boyles pitched 3 1/3 strong innings to earn the win, and Nic Farrugia drove in five runs and recorded the final two outs to leave the bases loaded and preserve the run-rule victory for the South Carolina state champs.
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The Palmetto State representatives came out swinging from the start, plating three runs in the first before Georgia responded with three of its own in the bottom half to tie the game. It was all South Carolina from there, though, as the Bluffton squad put up five runs each in the second and third to break it open, and Boyles and Farrugia took care of the rest with some help from a solid defense.
Bluffton smacked 15 hits in the four-inning contest, including two each from Boyles, Nicholas Carpenter, Farrugia, Henry Numssen, Zack Szypczak, and Charlie Nelson. Szypczak knocked in two runs, and Farrugia drove in five — including three on a bases-clearing triple in the third — a day after winning the home run derby during Friday’s skills competition.
Boyles struck out three and allowed three runs and four hits with three walks before hitting his pitch limit with one out in the fourth, and Farrugia recorded a strikeout and a groundout to prevent Georgia from extending the game another inning.
Bluffton will face Virginia, a 1-0 winner over host team Laurel-Jones County, at 8 p.m. ET Sunday.
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