Broughton baseball wins first Bobby Murray title since 1991, tops Corinth Holders
The 31st Bobby Murray High School Baseball Invitational was three games, two days, three different ballparks and 27 years in the making for Broughton.
The Capitals claimed their first Bobby Murray title since 1991 with a resounding 12-2 victory in five innings over Corinth Holders on Friday at Millbrook High School. Coach Jere Morton IV's team entered the tournament with a losing record but is now 8-6 on the season, winning three games in two days at three different sites.
"Figuring out how to win has been a challenge for us, so seeing them overcome the adversity we've had and seeing them finish games is special for us," Morton IV said. "The program, period, has been 15-53 the last three years, so this was huge for us."
With sleet in the forecast for Saturday, the three-day tournament was shortened to two, and an extra venue was needed to get all the games played.
The reshuffling sent Broughton to Rolesville to face the host Rams at 12:30 p.m. on Thursday, which the Caps won 7-5, and down the road to Heritage for a game with the host Huskies at 4 p.m., where Broughton won 8-6. The 2-0 record in pool play earned a spot in the final.
"It was a pretty fast turnaround, but our team brought a lot of energy," tournament MVP Joe Burrough said.
The tournament was divided into two pools: the Heritage (featuring Heritage, Broughton, Rolesville and Southwest Guilford) and Millbrook (Millbrook, Corinth Holders, Middle Creek and West Johnston).
Corinth Holders won the Millbrook pool with a 5-4 win over Millbrook and 8-3 win over Middle Creek that served as a de facto semifinal earlier in the day Friday.
The Pirates (11-3) played seven games in 12 days including two spring break tournaments, the other starting last weekend with the round-robin Golden Leaf Invitational.
"We had a big inning against Millbrook, a big inning against Middle Creek. Sooner or later it catches up with you. You can't rely on it," Corinth Holders coach Adam Weaver said.
Making the all-tournament team were: Broughton's Burrough, Kyle Ehlers, Penn Sealey and Campbell Nixon; Corinth Holders' Carson Sakowski and Tanner Smith; Heritage's Chris Katz; Southwest Guilford's Jacob Edwards; West Johnston's Jacob Siemion; Rolesville's Spencer Hicks; Middle Creek's Wade Chandler; Millbrook's Brian Pearce.
This story was originally published April 7, 2018 at 1:57 AM with the headline "Broughton baseball wins first Bobby Murray title since 1991, tops Corinth Holders."