Spring sports underway in Spivey’s Corner

Spring sports are officially underway, and at Midway High School the Raiders softball and baseball teams kicked off the season in exhilarating fashion. It took 10 innings for the softball game to finally decide the outcome while the baseball game narrowly avoided also going into extra innings. In the end, the Midway boys walked off a 4-3 win over South Johnston while the Lady Raiders took a tough loss, 1-0.

Softball

In spite of taking a loss to start their season, the Midway coaching staff was extremely pleased with their performance during Wednesday’s opening game. In the post-game huddle, head coach Susan Clark and staff praised the Lady Raiders’ outstanding pitching performance and defensive play. Midway played a mistake-free game on defense and continually put themselves in prime position to eke out the win. Senior pitcher Sarah Autry went the distance on the mound, notching 18 strikeouts in her season debut and giving up just three hits.

The two teams were evenly matched all game long. Scotland County was perhaps a step more impressive with Memphis signee Avery Stutts tossing 23 strikeouts against just two hits.

In the middle stages of the game, the Lady Raiders found themselves in a spectacular situation as they got the bases loaded with no outs after a walk and two batters were hit by a pitch. Stutts settled down, though, and fanned the next three batters and the score remained 0-0. To Midway’s credit, they also thwarted a couple of scoring chances for the Lady Scots, again keeping things all tied up at no score, a testament to the high-quality defense that was on display by both teams.

It wasn’t until the top of the tenth inning when the score finally changed — a solo home run to straight centerfield by Stutts to break the tie and put Scotland County up 1-0. In the bottom of the 10th, Midway’s Mollie Bass laced a beautiful ground-ball down the third baseline good enough for a double, putting the Lady Raiders in position to answer the score.

Unfortunately for the home team, Stutts again retired the side and carried her team to the 1-0 victory. For the first time in a while, the two-time defending East Regional Champions started the season with a loss, but the coaches reiterated that it was a great start to their season nonetheless.

When asked what she would like to have seen differently from her team, Clark acknowledged their approach at the plate.

“We didn’t make any adjustments,” she said. “I would like to have seen the girls change up their approach after they saw what Stutts was offering after the first at-bat.” Clark also said her team would be practicing their bunting. Referencing the couple of times the Lady Raiders had runners in scoring position, they failed to put a bunt in play, often fouling them off over the fence behind home plate.

Midway’s non-conference schedule is certainly a grueling one. They’ll face Scotland County again later in the season and will also face Cleveland, West Johnson, Harnett Central, Richlands, South View, South Lenoir and Hoggard. Next up for the Lady Raiders (0-1) was another home game on Friday against Cleveland. Kyleigh Stonerock and Bass accounted for Midway’s two hits.

Baseball

Over on the baseball field, the teams were having a little bit more success offensively. This battle between Midway and South Johnston typically delivers an entertaining contest and Wednesday night was no exception. After the lead changed hands a couple times, it was the Raiders that got the walk-off victory in the bottom of the seventh to open up the season with a 4-3 victory.

Midway got themselves in a pickle in the top of the second after a pair of hits and a passed ball helped the Trojans score one run. Runners were still in scoring position at second and third but South left them stranded as Wyatt Herring came onto the mound and retired the side with minimal damage, 1-0. In the bottom of the second, the Raiders offered up a response and actually claimed the lead. Camden Wilson led things off with a one-out single and was scored one batter later on another single into the outfield by Harrison Honeycutt, tying things up at 1-1. After a sacrifice by Wilson Mayo moved Honeycutt over to second base, he was scored on a high fly ball in the infield that was hit by Harry Johnson.The Trojans defense couldn’t pinpoint the towering ball as it fell back to the ground and it landed, and stayed, in fair territory to allow all runners safe and score the go-ahead run. That was all for the second inning and as it stood the Raiders led 2-1.

South Johnston again fired right back. They got a pair of 2-out singles to get runners aboard and an errant throw from Carson Tew over to first base yielded two more runs for the Trojans, who now led 3-2. Then, in the bottom of the fourth, Wyatt Scott got a lead-off single and later stole second to put himself in scoring position. Wilson got a sacrifice to move Scott over to third and one wild pitch later, he scored to tie things up again at 3-3. The game went quiet from there and the fifth and sixth innings passed by without any change in the score.

With extra innings looking like a good possibility, the Raiders said ‘not so fast’ to any thoughts of that as they strung together the offense to win the game. First, Johnson was hit by a pitch and was replaced by courtesy runner Wesley Tew. Luke Peterson laid down a bunt and was safe at first when a bad throw caused the Trojans’ first baseman to come off the bag before applying the out, giving Midway runners on first and second with no outs. Carson Tew was next up to the plate and he rifled a shot into shallow left field. Wesley Tew rounded third, his eyes meeting with home plate, and he initially held up as the throw in would’ve been in time. The problem for South, though, was it was a wild throw that was way off target, allowing Tew to run on in unharmed for the score, lifting the Raiders to a walk-off 4-3 win. With deep roots that run all the way back to South Johnston, Midway head coach Justin Carroll was extremely pleased to get the win. “It’s a tough game with them all the time because they want to beat us just as bad as we want to beat them. It’s a fun little rivalry with them,” he began.

All in all, Carroll was pleased with his team’s performance but noted it wasn’t a perfect performance. “Yeah, we squared the ball up pretty good at times. We were aggressive in the box, which was good, but sometimes a little too aggressive, and I made some mistakes tonight, too, sending runners when I shouldn’t have sent them, but, after the first inning, we made a little adjustment and it seemed to look a little better.“

Carroll also had high praises for Herring, he came on in a jam in the second inning and coasted the rest of the way. “He was efficient, he threw a ton of strikes and got some weak contact and when defense had to make plays, the defense made plays.” Carroll also threw out praises to Johnson for not bailing out of the plate on the pitch that hit him which set up the game-winning run. He also had high praises for Honeycutt, who earlier in the game tallied an RBI to tie the game up.

“The runs at the beginning of the game matter, just as much as the runs at the end too, so credit also goes to Harrison Honeycutt. It’s his first varsity game and being able to get a RBI single is huge. He looks as comfortable as anybody we’ve got right now, and he’s really earned his spot. I got nothing but good things to say about him,” Carroll concluded.

At the plate, Carson Tew led the way with two hits for Midway while Peterson, Scott, Wilson, Honeycutt, and Mayo all had one hit apiece. Tew also had one RBI. On the mound, Herring gave up two hits against seven strikeouts. The Raiders (1-0) were left with rematch at South Johnston on Friday night. Then on Monday, Midway is on the road at Triton, at West Johnson on Wednesday and will be at home against Southern Wayne on Friday.