A collective effort from the River Bluff pitching staff and middle infield helped the Gators shutout Blythewood 2-0. A win on Wednesday at Blythewood in game two can win the Gators the 5A state championship.

Mattie Garris took the mound for River Bluff and kept the Blythewood bats at bay for most of his four and two thirds innings.

One of the reasons that happened was the play of the middle infield with shortstop Walker Mitchell and second baseman Myles Proffitt. In the first, Mitchell made a diving catch at short to end the inning with a Blythewood runner on first. In the top of the fifth inning, Blythewood got two runners out before Proffitt made a good defensive play on a grounder at second to help get the Gators out of the jam.

“Walker and Myles, and I’m biased, but I think they’re the best middle infield in South Carolina and I think a lot of people would agree with that,” River Bluff head coach Mark Bonnette said after the game. “So, we’re lucky to have them. As a pitcher you just got to pitch to contact and let those dudes play.”

During the entire playoff run, River Bluff got explosive production from the top of the order from guys like Walker Mitchell, Beau Hollins and Thomas Powell. But Monday night, it was the bottom part of the order that generated the only runs in the game for either team.

Weston Grant led off the inning with a bloop single to center. Wyatt McPherson followed that up with a bloop single of his own to put runners on first and second with no outs. Logan Busbee proceeded to load the bases with a well-executed bunt single. On the next at-bat, Proffitt grounded a single past first base to score Grant. Garris grounded into a double play the next at-bat but still scored courtesy runner Hodges McCathern to give River Bluff a 2-0 lead that they never relinquished.

“We always talk about winning the 7-8-9 battle,” Bonnette added. “We want to keep 7-8-9 on the bases. Tonight, it was our 7-8-9 was able to make things happen and create that for our two-run inning. That was huge.”

While Garris got the game started and almost made it five innings, Andrew Vaughan entered the game in the fifth and got River Bluff out of a jam with two runners on and two outs while also taking them all the way to the last out, where Powell came in and collected a one pitch save

River Bluff’s 2-0 win now sets them up with a chance to win the 5A state championship at Blythewood on Wednesday for game two. The Gators are expected to start Powell for the potential championship clinching game. The game is slated to start at 6:30 p.m..

Despite the opportunity for a state championship, Bonnette feels like his team’s maturity won’t allow them to be overzealous in a game of that magnitude.

“I think we’ve got a veteran team,” Bonnette said. “These guys have played in a lot of big games. They understand it’s not done yet. It takes two and right now we got one so we’re in a great spot, but it’s not done yet.”