Bishops roll past Braves

Bishop England 8, Cheraw 2

Anthony Rowland didn't do everything for Bishop England's baseball team Wednesday, but he certainly did his share.

Rowland pitched six strong innings and delivered a two-run homer and an RBI single to lead the Bishops to an 8-2 victory over Cheraw in the District 6 finals.

"Anthony did a good job," said Bishop England coach Bill Collier. "He threw a lot of strikes and he had some nice at-bats. He's a good player."

The Bishops advance to the lower state championship series which will begin Saturday at Bishop England.

Rowland pitched three scoreless innings, and the Bishops jumped on top of Cheraw 3-0, thanks to Brian Solomon's two-out RBI single to left in the second, and a solo homer by Brison Celek and an RBI single by Rowland in the third inning.

Cheraw scored two runs in the fourth to cut the lead to 3-2, but Bishop England answered with three runs in the bottom of the fifth to take control.

Alex Abrams drove in a run with a two-out double to left field and Rowland followed with his homer.

The Bishops added two more runs in the sixth to close out the scoring, which was more than enough for Rowland, who recovered nicely after a troublesome fourth inning.

"He throws a lot of strikes," Collier said. "He's around the plate. He's going to give you a chance to win every time he goes to the hill. He's a competitor."

Bishop England made only one error and that was in the seventh inning with the outcome all but decided.

"We take a lot of pride in our defense," Collier said. "We had that one little blemish, but we'll work on that tomorrow."

Reach Charles Bennett at cbennett@postandcourier.com.