Blue Ridge baseball, Cade Norton show why they have blond ambition in high school playoffs

GREER – The blond bombers have begun.

Blue Ridge’s bleached-out baseballers, platinums going for the gold this season, started the high school Class AAA baseball playoffs Tuesday night with a mercy rule victory, 10-0 in five innings, at home against Emerald.

There was so much bleached-blond hair flying around, especially when the Tigers took off their hats in celebrations, that it looked like a surfers’ convention.

Blue Ridge catcher Cade Norton hit two home runs, drove in five and came up to bat only three times.

“I think this sets the tone,” Norton said. “It’s big for us. It’s a big win.”

The Tigers (14-4) will play host 7 p.m. Thursday in a district winners’ bracket game against Seneca, which beat Powdersville, 6-1.

Both of Norton’s home runs went all the way to the football stadium beyond the left field wall. The first shot, a towering two-run blast, might’ve actually gone through an open gate. That baseball might be somewhere around the 30-yard line.

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“How far was it hit? That’s a good question,” Blue Ridge coach Travis Henson said. “Well, it’s 320 (feet) to the fence. Those were probably both over 370, I would say.”

They were home runs number eight and nine this season for Norton, an uncommitted junior who is batting .419 with 27 RBIs. He’s also a catcher who could play center field. Norton dove to grab a foul ball. On a skipped strike three that bounced past him, off the backstop and went higher than the top of the netting, he still threw out the batter to complete the strikeout.

“Great, great defensive catcher,” Henson said. “You see how he blocks and how the throws. He’s very athletic. He’s one of the best catchers in the state.”

Mason Tompkins of Blue Ridge pitched four scoreless innings and hit two doubles, including a game-ending RBI off the wall to invoke the mercy rule. Brady Fowler had two hits. Tucker Upton was 2-for-2.

Blond, blond, blond.

Norton claimed early credit for the new-look locks, which came into fashion shortly after the Tigers finished undefeated (8-0) in the region. He said the idea was his back in preseason.

He had blond ambition.

“At first, we were just going to bleach our tips,” Norton said. “And then we were like, ‘You know what? We might as well go all in an do it.’ And we did it.”

“I did not know they were going to do it. I cannot believe they did it,” Henson said. “They came in on a Monday morning and I thought I was seeing ghosts.

“Some of these guys, I never thought they would change their hair. They’ve got prom. They’ve got girlfriends. Well, they did have girlfriends.”

This article originally appeared on Greenville News: How Blue Ridge baseball has turned a state title into a blond ambition