Newell’s 12-4 win forces a deciding fifth game

With momentum from Friday night’s 7-2 win in Charlotte, Newell evened the series out at 2-2 against Henderson County American Legion Post 77 Saturday night with a convincing 12-4 victory.

Jace Bollinger pitched a complete game for Newell, giving up only four hits in nine innings with nine strike-outs.

“I threw 147 pitches the other day, and all I wanted to do was play 5-6 innings and get us a lead,” Bollinger said.

“I wasn’t pitching strikes at first, but I got my curve going and then my stuff just started working.”

Newell got Bollinger his lead early with a two-run home run by Darrall Simmons in the first inning, but Henderson County battled back and tied it 3-3 behind Andrew Blackwell’s homer in the second and his two-run shot in the 4th.

That tie would quickly break with a grand slam by Patrick Deckbar in the fifth and another home run by Simmons in the sixth.

“Everybody played tremendous,” Newell coach Hugh Hicks said afterward. “We had some big hits when we needed them and we played an error-free ballgame, which you have to do in a game like this.”

Ethan Pressley answered back for Post 77 with a homerun of his own in the sixth, but the struggles at the plate continued for Henderson County the rest of the game.

“Offensively we just didn’t do a great job,” Post 77 coach Matt Mabe said. “We swung at some bad pitches in hitter’s counts, and you just can’t do that.”

With the series tied at 2-2, today’s game in Charlotte determines who advances on.

“The past two nights we have played a team that just wanted it more than us,” Mabe said.

“In your fifth game in five days it’s just going to come down to who wants it more, and I just hope our kids come out motivated.”