SANDHILL – The West Lincoln Bears captured a huge victory last Saturday to extend their season with a 11-4 win over the Pisgah Dragons in Class 2A state baseball playoffs action.

“I am very proud of how well our guys responded in Game Three,” said West Lincoln coach Steve Barrington. “We managed to put the bad game behind us and came out with the intensity and enthusiasm we need to get the win. Now we must regroup and get ready for a very good Lake team in Round Two.

The Bears (17-6, 7-3) will be in action Thursday as they prepare to travel to Lake to battle the Lake Hornets starting at 6 p.m. West Lincoln returns home to host Lake Friday starting at 7 p.m.

West Lincoln 11, Pisgah 4 

The West Lincoln Bears came ready to play Saturday after suffering a bad outing Friday night and took control of the contest in the third inning as they grabbed a 7-0 lead.

Pisgah tried to answer West Lincoln’s challenge in the bottom of the third inning as they pushed across three runs to cut into the Bears’ lead at 7-3.

The Bears added four more runs to increase their lead to 11-3 in the sixth inning and held the Dragons just one run in the seventh inning to secure the win.

Tanner Boutwell was the winning pitcher for the Bears with two strikeouts and two walks.

Triston Derrick suffered the loss for the Dragons with three strikeouts and two walks. Beau Nelson (0K, 4BB) also pitched for Pisgah.

Bryce Temple provided the offensive spark to lead the Bears with three singles. Lofton Sill fueled the flames with a triple and a single. Chase Buckles and Tyler Moak contributed a double and a single apiece. Boutwell ripped a pair of singles. Jeremy Burns had a double. Hitting safely were Brady Wilson and Alex Neal.

Aidan Bradford was the top hitter for Pisgah with two singles. Jay Hales, Quinton Rabon, Don Ragsdale, Triston Derrick, Will Herrington and Archie Sullivan hit safely.