Terry Sanford baseball carves out 4-1 win vs. Southern Lee to stay perfect in CFV play
By Earl Vaughan Jr., scholastic sports editor, Fayetteville Observer
Posted: Wednesday, March 25, 2015 10:47 pm | Updated: 9:43 am, Thu Mar 26, 2015.
It wasn't the best night of pitching or hitting for Terry Sanford on Wednesday in a Cape Fear Valley 3-A Conference baseball showdown with Southern Lee.
But all that mattered for the Bulldogs at the end was the result, and still holding a piece of first place in the league. Justin Walke scattered five hits in a complete game and the Bulldogs took advantage of wildness by four Cavaliers pitchers to carve out a 4-1 win.
The triumph left Terry Sanford 7-1 overall and 4-0 in the league. That assured them of at least a piece of first place with Lee County, which stayed unbeaten in conference play with an 8-1 win over Douglas Byrd.
The loss was Southern Lee's first in league action, dropping them to 5-2 overall and 2-1 in the conference.
The Bulldogs may have been distracted by the absence of starting first baseman Joseph Riddle. According to Terry Sanford coach Sam Guy, Riddle was admitted to Cape Fear Valley Medical Center on Wednesday with severe throat pain and a high fever. Guy said tests to determine what Riddle's illness is have been inconclusive.
Aside from their concern for Riddle, Guy said there were other factors that could have played into Terry Sanford's lack of offense. He noted the night before they pounded out 20 hits against Douglas Byrd. "If anybody follows baseball at all, a lot of times when you have a big game like that, the next night you tend to have longer swings and try to hit it harder,'' he said. "We didn't hit the ball very well, but we battled through some counts.''
The Bulldogs also had trouble adjusting to the array of pitchers Southern Lee used. They combined to walk eight batters.
"We struggled throwing strikes and gave them a lot of baserunners,'' Southern Lee coach David Miller said. "It caught up with us late.''
Terry Sanford's Walke was solid if not spectacular on the mound. He had control issues of his own but regrouped early and at one point retired 10 batters in a row. He struck out seven and walked three.
"I was trying to place it too much, giving the hitter too much credit and not playing my game,'' Walke said of his early problems. He got better, he said, when he relaxed and started hitting his spots.
He only made one mistake that cost him, hanging a split-finger pitch in the sixth inning that Cody Ellis swatted for an RBI single and Southern Lee's only run of the game.
Walke helped himself out at the plate, driving in two of Terry's Sanford's four runs. Logan Hales also had an RBI single.
"I'm not saying this was an ugly win because we did a lot of things right, but we did do some things wrong,'' Guy said. "We've just got to get better every day.''
Scholastic sports editor Earl Vaughan Jr. can be reached at vaughane@fayobserver.com or 486-3519.
