Zack Brockman of the Savannah Bananas and Conner Tate of the Lexington County Blowfish led the National Team in a 9-4 win over the American All-Stars tonight in the CPL All-Star game. The game was held in Lexington, S.C. and hosted by the Lexington County Blowfish.
Brockman, a freshman out of Liberty, was named Pitcher of the Game. He pitched the eighth inning, earning the win while not allowing a hit or a walk and striking out two.
“It’s great having all this competition out here and having that honor is awesome,” said Brockman on being named pitcher of the game.
Tate (Lexington County Blowfish / Fr., Georgia) was awarded Hitter of the Game, going 2-for-2 with a double, two RBIs and one run scored tonight at Lexington County Baseball Stadium.
Redmond Walsh (Forest City Owls / RS Fr., Tennessee) was the starting pitcher for the National Team and Kenny Wells (Morehead City Marlins / So., Seton Hill) for the American team.
Myles Christian (HP-Thomasville HiToms / Fr., Middle Tennessee) kicked off the first of many runs for the National Team, hitting a homerun in the bottom of the first inning. From there, the National Team took an early 4-0 lead in the first inning, a lead they would hold for the remainder of the game.
The American Team responded early with a diving stop from third baseman, Rich Ciufo (Edenton Steamers / So., Brown) in the bottom of the second. This was followed by Jonathan Embry (Peninsula Pilots / So., Liberty) putting the American Team on the board in the top of the third inning, hitting a two-run homerun.
However, the National Team was not willing to give up its lead, as they countered with five runs in the bottom of the third. Conner Tate (Lexington County Blowfish / Fr., Georgia) first doubled to left field, allowing Zach Mclean (HP-Thomasville HiToms / Fr., North Carolina A&T) to score. He was followed by RBIs from Kendall McGowan (Forest City Owls / Fr., Appalachian State) and Derek Perry (Forest City Owls / Sr., Pfeiffer).
This wasn’t the last of the runs in the bottom of the third either as Patrick Causa (Florence RedWolves / So., Mount St. Mary’s) drove in two more runs for the National Team with a single to strengthen their lead to 9-2.
The American Team went on to add two more runs in the top of the fifth inning as Cole Prestegard (Peninsula Pilots / JR., Troy University) singled to left field, scoring Cam Locklear (Holly Springs Salamanders / Fr., Liberty University) and Danton Hyman (Morehead City Marlins / Jr., Newberry College.)
These, however, would be the final runs scored of the game, as James Williams (Macon Bacon / So., Georgia) struck out the next two batters with the bases loaded and the pitchers continued to put up zeroes for the remainder of the game, securing the National All-Stars the victory.
The full boxscore and play-by-play can be found here.