Halifax Academy baseball traveled to Grace Christian in Sanford Tuesday afternoon to play in the 1st round of the 1A NCISAA state playoffs.

Going into the game the Vikings were the underdog seeded #12 and playing the #5 seed.

It did not look good early on for the Vikings going 3 up/3down in the 1st and 4th innings and 4 up/3 down in the 2nd and 3rd innings.

Grace scored 2 runs in the 1st and added 4 more in the bottom of the 2nd before the Vikings made a pitching change.

Ryan Mizelle got the start for the Vikings but was pulled halfway through the bottom of the 2nd allowing 3 walks, 2 strike-outs, 4 hits including  a 3 run home-run and 6 run total.

Luke Blackman came in and got down to business in a hurry. Grace only scored 2 more runs in the game on Blackman.

Going into the top of the 5th inning the Vikings were down 7-0.

Grace pitchers walked 9 batters and hit another 2 batters with pitches walking in 4 runs for the Vikings. This seemed to give them renewed strength on the extremely hot afternoon (90 degrees).

Blackman and the Vikings defense held Grace scoreless in the bottom of the 5th.

Top of the 6th Tyler Jomo gets walked to start the inning. Catcher Ryan Hockaday hits a single followed by Matthew Wray's single to right scoring Jomo and Hockaday who both had advanced to 2nd and 3rd on a passed ball. Luke Blackman hits a double and Wray was thrown out at 3rd. The 3rd baseman tried to gun down Blackman at 2nd but overthrew the ball sending Blackman to 3rd. He would score on a passed ball by the catcher tying the game at 7 all.

Grace scores 1 run in the bottom of the 6th putting them up 8-7 after 6 innings.

Not looking good for the Vikings, trailing by 1 in the top of the 7th with 2 outs but the come back boys were not done yet. With 2 outs and Collin Smith standing on 3rd Tyler Jomo hits a single scoring Smith to tie the game. Hockaday and Bradley Myrick added singles and eventually scored before the end of the inning.

Up 10-8 the Vikings were facing the top of Grace's lineup. Mizelle threw out the 1st batter at 1st, the 2nd batter hit a double and advanced to third when Poole bobbled the throw. It would not matter because Blackman struck out the #3 batter and Landen Poole made an amazing catch in deep center field to end the game.

Blackman gets the win for Halifax,. He pitched 5 1/2 innings allowing 1 walk, 1 hit by pitch, 7 strike-outs, 4 hits and 2 runs.

Hits for the Vikings: Wray-single, Blackman-double, Bryant-single, Jomo-single, Hockaday-2 singles, Myrick-2 singles.

The Vikings had 9 batters walked and 2 hit by pitches to help with the win.

Halifax will travel to #4 seed Lawrence Academy Friday at 4:30.