Despite losing seven starters from a year ago, Southern Wayne’s varsity baseball team recorded 15 wins and advanced to the N.C. High School Athletic Association 3A playoffs for the second straight year. Their season ended with a 14-4 loss to Wilson Hunt on Tuesday evening. (Rudy Coggins|mountolivetribune.com)
WILSON — Perennial power Hunt lived by the adage “hit ‘em where they ain’t” during its opening-round, 14-4 conquest of Southern Wayne in the N.C. High School Athletic Association Class 3A playoffs Tuesday evening.
The 14th-seeded Warriors cranked out 16 hits and claimed their second win over the 19th-seeded Saints in three meetings this season.
“We didn’t play sloppy defensively, they just hit everything we threw up there,” said SW head coach Trae McKee. “Tip your cap to them. When they get confidence at the plate, they are dangerous.”
Hunt built an 11-0 lead through three innings.
Southern Wayne (15-8 overall) avoided the shutout with a fourth-inning run and plated three runs in the fifth.
The Warriors touched Drew Sweet for 11 runs (10 earned) on 11 hits. The junior right-hander walked one and retired three Hunt batters on strikeouts.
Tyler Odom tossed 1 1/3 innings of four-hit, three-strikeout relief.
Sophomores CJ Radford and Seth Evans combined for six hits and seven RBI. Evans swatted a home run.
“I don’t agree with going to play a conference opponent in the first round of the playoffs, but I can understand it in the second round because of seeding,” McKee said. “It looks like the state would do something [to avoid the scenario] if you have teams in the same pod from the same conference.”
Sweet, Cuyler Daly (RBI), Tyler McKee (RBI) and Hayden Waller notched one hit apiece for the Saints. Jake Coates contributed an RBI.
Junior catcher Alex Ferrell recorded six of the Saints’ 12 putouts defensively.
Southern Wayne loses just one starter — senior Dylan Daniels.
McKee spoke with his team about the positive things it accomplished this season, especially 15 victories with a completely new lineup. The Saints lost six starters to graduation and a seventh during the offseason.
“Obviously, we’re disappointed by the outcome [but] we’re still relatively young,” McKee said. “We’re going to be more physically stronger next year, have more experience under our belt and work in the offseason to make adjustments on some things we need to get better at.”
