It was a disappointing start to Swine Valley 2A/3A Conference play for the Midway baseball and girls soccer teams Tuesday. The Lady Raiders suffered a shutout loss to visiting Princeton, 5-0, while over on the baseball field, a comeback bid from Midway fell short, resulting in a 3-2 loss.
Baseball
After going 1-1 last week to begin the season, the Raiders were looking to start conference play on the right foot. Unfortunately for the home team, they fell behind early in the contest and just couldn’t quite dig themselves out of the hole.
A scoreless first inning was quickly forgotten when Princeton’s Bulldogs put two runs on the board in the top of the second. A pair of singles and an error in the outfield scored the visitors’ first run. Then, with runners on first and third, the Raiders turned a double play, but the Bulldogs scored the runner from third to make it 2-0.
Errors bit Midway again in the top of the third, producing another score for Princeton and leaving the Raiders facing a 3-0 deficit.
At the plate, Midway was having just as tough a time putting sustainable scoring chances together as they were defensively. Things just weren’t going their way as early season struggles continued.
The Raiders finally put together a little magic on a 2-out rally in the bottom of the fourth. Luke Peterson got on base after hitting a single and was followed up by Harry Johnson getting a line drive into right field. The right fielder slipped on the play and the ball got by him, rolling all the way to the fence, allowing Peterson to score and Johnson to take third, where, unfortunately for the home team, he was stranded.
Midway got another run in the bottom of the fifth on some more two-out magic, getting a walk from Carson Tew who scored on a double by Tanner Williams.
Then, in the bottom of the seventh, the Raiders tried one more time to turn two outs in the tying run when Tew got a triple and Williams was walked. Wesley Tew, though, popped up for the final out of the game, solidifying the 3-2 loss for Midway.
The Raiders had seven hits on the game, getting two each from Carson Tew and Williams. Johnson, Peterson, and Wyatt Scott all had one hit apiece.
Midway fell to 1-2 overall and 0-1 in conference play and was looking to gain a win and grab some momentum on Friday night when they hosted Spring Creek. Those game results came be found in the Tuesday edition of The Sampson Independent.
Soccer
Over on the soccer pitch, things were just as dire for the Lady Raiders as for the baseballers.
It was clear from the start that Princeton was going to be a challenge as the Lady Bulldogs made it difficult for Midway to even get the ball out to midfield. Indeed, Princeton was just all around the better team as they bested the Lady Raiders 5-0.
Midway’s girls held their own in the first half, limiting the Lady Bulldogs to just one goal that came at the midpoint in the first half. After that, though, the floodgates opened for Princeton as they tallied four more scores in the second half.
Things didn’t get much better for the Lady Raiders on Wednesday as a trip to North Johnson yielded another shutout loss, this time 9-0.
Midway is winless on the season, sitting at 0-4-1 overall and 0-1 in league play. They were also back on the field on Friday night looking for a confidence-boosting first win. See those results in Tuesday’s Sampson Independent and at clintonnc.com