Cornerstone baseball continues historic playoff run to regional finals with game-winning hit
Cornerstone Charter baseball pitched a shutout and capitalized on an outfield error to win 1-0 over Community School of Davidson in the fourth round on Friday to continue the program's deepest playoff run and reach the NCHSAA 2A regional finals.
Cornerstone (16-9), the No. 6 West seed, faces No. 1 seed Cherryville, after the one-run win over the seventh-seed CSD (15-11) at the Leonard Recreation Center in Greensboro.
"It's incredible," said Cornerstone junior Brayden Barbee, who hit the game-winning RBI-single. "I mean, it's something the school has never done before. It feels good to be a part of a team that can make history at somewhere just like Cornerstone. Recently, we got up to (Class) 2A; it's a big change from the lower competition and I'm glad we could show up and make something special with Cornerstone."
In a pitchers' duel between Cornerstone junior Crawford Allen and CSD senior Dylan Foltz, neither team scored through the first 4½ innings, with the Cardinals only having one hit until freshman Noah Moran's one-out line drive single in the bottom of the fifth to center field. The ball got past CSD center fielder Russell Edmonson, allowing Moran to advance to third base.
"Off the bat, I'm like, ‘That's a good hit,' and then I don't know if he is going to catch it (on the fly), so I'm just running, I see it gets past him, I turn on the wheels and run as fast as I can," Moran said.
Up to that point, the Cardinals were 0-for-3 with runners in scoring position, including a two-out strikeout with runners on second and third to end the bottom of the third inning. Barbee, the team's leadoff batter, swung and missed for strike one, then hit an inside curveball hard on the ground past the third baseman for a single to left.
Barbee got thrown out attempting to stretch a single into a double, but Moran scored the game's only run anyway.
"It all starts on deck," Barbee said. "I was waiting to see what the guy in front of me could do. I see him get the ball past, gets on third base, and I'm just trying to put the ball somewhere in play to score the run. Solid contact down the third base line, I get told, ‘Go two (as in ‘run to second base').' I ended up getting thrown out, but the whole at-bat, I'm just trying to do my job, and we ended up doing that and going up 1-0."
Allen, who entered 7-2 with a 1.71 ERA, pitched 6 1/3 innings, allowing seven hits and no walks, before being pulled with a runner on first and one out in the game's final frame. The Spartans went 0-for-5 with runners in scoring position, not counting the top of the third when Foltz doubled but his courtesy runner Elijah Brake got caught attempting to steal third.
"He is very effective because he fills the zone up," said Cornerstone's third-year coach Jonathan Nichols. "That has been one of the things that has plagued us some with our other starting pitchers, but he just fills the zone up, he changes speeds, changes locations, and he has a lot of confidence in his ability. He shows that every time he goes out there. He is just a bulldog, and we saw it tonight."
In the top of the fifth, Edmonson's one-out double down the left field line put runners on second and third, but Allen got out of the jam with a pop out to first base and a fly out to shallow center field caught by a diving Moran.
"It was hanging up there, but he was playing deep, and I was worried that he wasn't going to make it there," said Nichols on Moran's catch. "But he did a great job, slid on his knees, caught it and saved two runs from scoring."
The Cardinals' lone run came after Moran's diving catch kept the game scoreless.
"It's amazing," Allen said. "Being able to get out of those innings, I give all the credit to the defense and just them playing their hearts out, my shortstop making an amazing play, my centerfielder making a diving catch, and then him hitting a triple, and then one of my buddies scoring him, it's amazing."
Cornerstone lost in the first round of the 1A playoffs in both 2024 and 2025, with last year's defeat being a 10-9 heartbreaker to Eastern Randolph. It got its first-ever NCHSAA playoff victory when it defeated 11-seed Bishop McGuinness 7-2 in the second round on May 8, then upset 3-seed Hayesville 21-8 in the third round on Tuesday.
"I can't say enough," Nichols said. "With the support from our community, the fans, parents, family members, friends and the school, the guys just feel it. They have rallied around it. We just got out there and find a way, and we just have to keep doing that."
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