Midway teams advanced to middle school championships and will play Hobbton and Roseboro-Salemburg in the respective baseball and softball title tilts set for Monday.
Baseball
The Hobbton Wildcats will meet the Midway Raiders Monday afternoon in the county middle school championship at Union Middle. The Wildcats got by Roseboro-Salemburg Middle Thursday afternoon 4-1. The Wildcats and the Raiders are split their two meetings during the regular season as both teams beat the other once.
“Pitching was the key to the game,” said Wildcats head coach Chuck Lively. “We had 14 strikeouts among the 21 in the whole game. Richard Warren and Daniel Britt did a great job.”
Warren started the game and accumulated six strikeouts. Britt came on to finish the game and recorded eight strikeouts. Ben Langston went 1-3 with a run scored, Martin Holloman was 1-2 with a base on balls, Justin Renfrow was 1-2 with a run scored and Warren and Ivan Fernandez were both 1-3.
The championship game is scheduled for 4 p.m. on Monday.
Softball
After going undefeated during regular season with a record of 8-0, the Midway Middle School Lady Raiders softball team played Sampson Middle School on Thursday for the first round of the tournament, defeating the Dark Horses 16-1.
Chloe Baggett started on the mound for the Lady Raiders, totaling two strike outs in the first inning.
“Our bats started a little slow and neither team scored in the first inning,” said Midway head coach Selena Joseph.
Baggett got two more strikeouts in the second inning, but Sampson did get one run from an over thrown ball to take a 1-0 lead. That lead was shortlived, however, as Midway exploded in the second inning.
Miranda Holmes started out with a base hit to center field. After a few walks, and with two outs against them, the Raiders mounted a rally.
“The bases were loaded and Jega Dapuyen hit a base hit scoring, two runs. Baggett hit a double, Sydney Williams hit an in the park home run, Bella Bryant had a base hit then Miranda Holmes came back up to hit a triple,” Joseph recounted as the Midway hit parade continued.
“Taylor Williams had a base hit and Ashlyn Honeycutt each had a base hit, Emma Clark a double, and Jega came back to hit a double to end the inning at 12-1,” Joseph continued.
Midway scored four more runs to end the ballgame with a final score of 16-1.
With the win, they advance to play for the championship on Monday, which will also be at Union Middle, against Roseboro-Salemburg.