South Central clips Green Hope baseball, routs Person softball
It was a good night to be a Falcon from Pitt County. South Central hosted and defeated Person softball and Green Hope baseball in the first round of the N.C. High School Athletic Association playoffs on Tuesday.
SOFTBALL
South Central’s softball team keeps on rolling.
The Falcons, fresh off an Eastern Carolina 3A/4A Conference title, made quick work of Person 10-0 Tuesday in five innings in a N.C. High School Athletic Association 4A first-round matchup.
South Central (21-2), which won its sixth consecutive game, will face Apex, a 12-0 winner over Wakefield, in the second round.
“It was a workmanlike game,” South Central coach Cotton Nicholson said. “Nothing flashy. Get people on base, and we got ’em in. ... We’ve got to get better. We’ve got to get sharper. Defensively, we were solid but we can always get better. Can’t ever get satisfied. Never.”
The Falcons’ recent run wasn’t spurred by a 9-2 win over C.B. Aycock in which they scored five runs in the first inning to take control early. A 9-2, nine-inning win over D.H. Conley to win the ECC title wasn’t the season’s turning point.
Instead, Nicholson points to an Easter tournament game against Richmond County. While South Central lost 6-5 in nine innings, it was the fact that the Falcons rallied from a three-run deficit to force extra innings against quality competition that got the coach’s attention.
“That meant we can compete with anybody in the state,” Nicholson said. “Then we beat Aycock and Conley and we get momentum against good teams.”
The momentum didn’t stop against Person.
South Central wasted little time getting to Person starter Kaity Sullivan. Madison Deanes legged out an infield single, stole second and scored on a passed ball. Anna Mewborn reached on a fielding error, and came home as Cam Davis drilled a 2-2 offering over the left-field fence for a quick 3-0 advantage.
The Falcons then loaded the bases thanks in part to a double by Lauren Conway and a single by Marissa Roach. Conway went home on a wild pitch, though Sullivan got a strikeout to keep the score at 4-0 after one inning.
Mewborn reached on a dropped third strike, and came home on a long double by Lindsey McCallum in the second inning to pad the advantage to five.
The Falcons added two more in the third. Roach singled and went to third on a two-base fielding error before scoring on a groundout. Kennedy Fipps also singled and advanced to third on a two-base fielding error before heading home on a sacrifice fly by Jessica Purcell to make the score 7-0.
The Falcons added another run in the fourth and two more in the fifth to end the game with one out on the 10-run rule.
South Central has won 11 games by double digits this season. Abi Rowell got the win in the circle, allowing three hits – two of them to Sullivan – struck out three and walked three.
Mewborn, McCallum and Roach had two hits apiece for South Central.
While Person coach Prentice Hargrove was disappointed the season is over, he is looking forward to next season as the Rockets have no seniors on the roster.
“We’re a young team,” Hargrove said. “The good is we got here. Every time you get to play a good team like this, you learn something and it makes you better. You can focus on the score, and you won’t get what you need to out of (the game).”
Person, from the PAC-6 Conference, finishes 9-11.
BASEBALL
South Central’s baseball team is having fun.
Coming back from a four-run deficit might not sound like fun, but coach Pat McRae emphasized that as a key to their come-from-behind, 7-5 victory over Green Hope in the first round of the N.C. High School Athletic Association 4A playoffs.
South Central (17-7) advances to face Holly Springs, a 7-2 winner over Rolesville, in the second round.
“The biggest key is these guys are having fun. Flat-out,” McRae said. “They’re playing baseball; they’re with each other. They’re doing everything they can to be around each other. They’re about the ‘us,’ not about the ‘I.’ They’re just having fun.”
It was Green Hope’s Falcons who were having fun early. Green Hope went ahead 2-0 in the second inning on consecutive RBI singles by Connor Knapp and Jordan Montgomery. An RBI single in the third inning by Austen Jones and an RBI triple by Liam Norris doubled the margin.
South Central’s Falcons, of the Eastern Carolina 3A/4A Conference, mustered just one hit in the first three innings, but McRae noticed his team discussing Norris’ stuff on the mound.
“They talked to each other, and they figured out what he was throwing,” McRae said. “He kind of lacked in his breaking pitches and couldn’t throw them for strikes. We knew he had to come back with a fastball. We shortened our hands up and hit it, we hit it hard and we ran the bases well.”
South Central closed within 4-3 in the fourth as Drew Nichols came home on a passed ball, Scott Mayo had an RBI single and Chris Poole added an RBI groundout.
South Central loaded the bases with no one out in the fifth. Kolby Wainwright lofted a deep fly into left field, but the runners held. Ryan Purcell followed with a shot dropped into the right-field corner for a double that scored two to stake South Central to a 5-4 lead. South Central lost a chance to add to the lead after a baserunning error caused Syncere Pittman to be picked off near the plate.
South Central loaded the bases again in the sixth, and Drew Nichols answered the bell, stroking a single into left field to drive in Jackson Morse and Kevin Mills to push the lead to three.
“They fight,” Green Hope coach Michael Miragliuolo said of South Central’s hitters. “We’ve heard that about them. They’re hitting .380 as a team without hitting home runs. They’re a team that puts the bat on the ball.”
Green Hope was last year’s 4A East regional champ.
“They had so many counts that were 3-2, they just flicked their wrists at it and they found holes (in the defense),” Miragliuolo continued. “I just told our guys we didn’t make errors. They hit about four dribblers that made it through, got one in front of our right fielder. We pulled everybody in and they bloop one over his head. You’ve got to give credit to their hitters. They’re tough outs up and down the lineup.”
Green Hope’s Cooper Derks came off the bench and launched a 1-0 pitch over the left-field fence to close within 7-5.
“He’s a senior and he’s a real good hitter,” Miragliuolo said. “We were hoping to get things started, but we were hoping to get him one more at-bat. That was a feel-good moment.”
Green Hope did get things started in the seventh after Derks’ home run. Jordyn Adams doubled, and Jones was hit by a pitch to put the potential tying runs on second and third with two out, but Abrams struck out to end the game.
Chris Mills and Nichols had three hits apiece for South Central, while Pittman added a pair of hits. Adams doubled and tripled for Green Hope in finishing 2-for-4 at the plate, Norris went 2-for-3 with a triple and Jones – a senior - added two hits.
“Austen Jones was a four-year starter, and won 90 games for us,” Miragliuolo said.
Christian Stokes got the win for South Central. He scattered nine hits, walked two and struck out seven. All five of the runs against him were earned.
Norris took the loss, yielding eight hits and five runs, all earned, over four innings. He struck out four and walked three.
“We had a freshman on the mound,” Miragliuolo said. “He battled and he gave us his best effort. It was a tough spot to put a freshman in. I’m excited to see what’s to come for Liam.”
Green Hope, of the Southwest Wake Athletic Conference, finishes the season 16-9.
McRae explained that he writes down four or five things on a little sheet of paper that he hangs up every day in the dugout, and the last one is always to have fun.
“I just want to see them keep playing hard, play defense, hit the ball, make adjustments and talk to each other,” McRae said. “And have fun. That’s the most important thing. ... If you ain’t having fun on a baseball field, you ain’t doing it right.”
This story was originally published May 10, 2017 at 3:20 AM with the headline "South Central clips Green Hope baseball, routs Person softball."