BOILING SPRINGS — Crest baseball has proven time and again this season that there's no single formula for victory. Whether it's a pitching duel or a defensive battle, the Chargers find ways to win. But in Tuesday's NCHSAA 5A West third-round playoff clash with East Lincoln, they manufactured a win in the most explosive way possible: a home run barrage.
"I mean, the ball carries here all the time, but the wind wasn't blowing straight out or anything like that," said Crest coach Adam McFarland, surveying the ballpark before the game. "But one thing is for sure, the baseball was flying out of here tonight."
And fly it did. In a game that featured a staggering eight home runs, third-seeded Crest outlasted No. 6 East Lincoln 14-9, punching their ticket to a regional final showdown with second-ranked South Point on May 15.
The Chargers launched five homers of their own, with a bulk of the fireworks coming during a six-run fifth inning. After East Lincoln had surged ahead 6-5 with a six-run spurt of their own, Crest responded in emphatic fashion. Luke Rayfield and Landry Ohmstead went back-to-back with home runs to put the Chargers back on top. Then, after an Eli Black flyout that fell just short of leaving the park, Caleb Costner and J.M. Knapp kept the power show going with back-to-back homers of their own, stretching the lead to 9-6.
"Obviously, we expected East Lincoln to respond — they're a good team," McFarland said. "But we didn't necessarily expect us to put up a 5-spot, then they respond with an answer of their own. I'm just glad our guys did a good job responding."
Crest tacked on two more runs in the inning, opening a five-run lead. East Lincoln refused to go quietly, cutting the deficit to 11-9 in the sixth after a Tanner Matile home run, a Connor Presley sacrifice fly, and a Ryker Wensil RBI base hit. But the Chargers had one more answer in them.
In the bottom half of the frame, a bases-loaded walk by Brock Melton and an RBI base hit from Rayfield restored Crest's five-run cushion. Rayfield then shut the door from the mound, retiring the final three batters to seal the victory and keep the Chargers' championship hopes alive.
"I felt like we put some good swings on some balls," McFarland added. "This was definitely a crazy launching pad type of night for us."