Airport Baseball Rides Bullis' Bat to Big Region Wins

Since the post-Spring Break, the Eagles have played with the urgency and confidence of a defending Class 4A champion., with consecutive road wins over region rivals.

Airport's Rylan Bullis is greeted at homeplate after his 3-run HR. | Thomas Grant Jr.

Since the post-Spring Break, the Airport baseball team played with the urgency and confidence of a defending South Carolina Class 4A champion. With consecutive road wins over region rivals, they look to carry over the momentum the rest of the season.

Instead of spending leisure time away from the baseball field, Airport continued its tradition of staying focused on baseball during the break.

This means taking part in the Forest Acres Classic in Columbia. Held at Falcon Field on the campus of A.C. Flora High School, the 4-day tournament has produced future state champions and consistent competitive play for the eight participants.

Such was the case for the Eagles who faced two ranked Class 5A opponents and a defending Virginia state champion.

Bullis Sparks Airport with 6 RBI in Comeback Win

Providing an early spark for the Eagles was rightfielder Rylan Bullis, who led the way in his team's 9-8 win over Gray Collegiate. It started with a two-run double in his opening plate appearance to give Airport an early advantage.

A.C. Flora head coach Andy Hallet present All-Tournament and All Academic awards to Airport's Rylan Burris and Justin Sightler. | Thomas Grant Jr.

This was the first of Bullis’ career-high six RBI in the game.

The War Eagles answered with four runs in the Bottom second, two off a double by Logan Sporles. GCA extended its lead to 5-2 before Daniel Butts and Gabe Ingram hit RBI singles in the fourth inning for Airport.

An RBI single by Caleb Burgess, an RBI triple by Garrett Blakenship and RBI double by Matt Hornsby Jr. (whose father and former head coach was hired to take a similar job at American Leadership Academy – Blythewood) increased Gray Collegiate’s advantage to 8-4 at the end of the fifth inning.

The resilient Eagles answered with a four-run rally of their own. Landon Jeffcoat had a RBI double that also moved Isahia Clemons to third base. This set the stage for Bullis to clear the bases with a lofty home run ball over the leftfield fence to tie the game.

“We put ourselves in a bad situation in that game, down 8-4,” Bullis said. “But we knew we had to come back to win it. We’ve got to win it one by one. You can’t go big hit. I didn’t think about that. I thought about straight hit and it happened.”

The War Eagles reclaimed the lead in the Bottom 6th with a sacrifice fly. Bullis provided one of his own in the Top 7th to force extra innings.

Airport capitalized off an error in the Top 8th for the go-ahead run. As Butts raced to first base after swinging on a dropped third strike, catcher Caleb Burgess’ throw went past first baseman Kole Gordon for an error.

This allowed Rhodus to score and give Airport a 9-8 advantage. Fittingly, it was Bullis on the mound who recorded the final three outs to close out the victory.

It was the first region loss of the season for Gray Collegiate, who had a one-game lead over Airport and Gilbert.

“That’s a reason we play those games,” said Airport head coach Craig Bradwell after participating in the Forest Acres Classic every year. “To get experience in playing tight games. This region is really good. We play really close games against everybody, but definitely last week (helped us). And we were on the wrong side of it last week. One time, we won one (9-8 over River Bluff in eight innings), but we lost a game we gave up (5-4 to T.C. Robertson) and we’ve talked about the little things and what wins and losses baseball games.”

Battle for Second place

The Eagles and Indians played Wednesday to determine which team could still catch Gray Collegiate Academy for first place.

It was an evenly-played contest as starting pitchers Butts for Airport and Henry Wooten of Gilbert matched each other with four straight scoreless innings.

Jeffcoat’s sacrifice bunt in the Top 5th put the Eagles on top. The Indians capitalized off an error by Clemons at second base to tie the game in the Bottom 5th.

With Butts limiting Gilbert to just four hits and striking out seven, Airport’s offense came through in the Top 7th. After loading the bases, the Eagles put together a 4-run rally that saw Bullis record his second straight 3-hit game and two baserunners score off an error.

Airport got the 5-1 victory to take sole possession of second place and a game behind Gray Collegiate Academy.