HobbsDailyReport.com
Fred T. Foard High junior Caleb Peschel threw a no-hitter that powered the Tigers past Hibriten on Thursday night and into the championship game of the Northwestern Foothills 2A baseball tournament.
The third-seeded Tigers won 3-0 at Walker Stadium in Lenoir, improving to 11-8, and will play top-seeded Bunker Hill (18-5) at Walker Stadium on Friday night at 7 p.m. for the title.
Bunker Hill advanced by beating fifth-seeded East Burke 11-6, also at Walker Stadium, in Thursday’s second semifinal.
Foard scored a run in the first inning and two in the seventh inning to beat second-seeded Hibriten for the second time in four meetings this season. The Tigers beat the Panthers 7-5, fell 15-2 in five innings in the Catawba Valley Easter Baseball Classic and the Panthers won 3-2 in Lenoir in the previous games.
Bunker Hill is assure of making next week’s state 2A playoffs as the league’s No. 1 seed and Hibriten (11-10) will get the conference’s other automatic postseason bid.
As a No. 3 seed, Foard is playoff eligible and would guarantee itself a state playoff bid if it wins the tournament. Otherwise, the Tigers’ fate will include other factors, like their MaxPreps ranking.
North Lincoln 3, Bandys 0
The top-seeded Knights (22-2) nipped the second-seeded Trojans (20-4) for the second time this season, winning at the Legion Fairgrounds in Newton to gain a South Fork 2A tournament crown.
North Lincoln scored all of its runs in the third inning.
Tyler Lilly threw a complete game for the Knights, giving up four hits and striking out four. He drove in a run, as did David Borgis and Tyler McPeak.
North Lincoln owns the No. 1 state playoff seed from the league, and the Trojans own the No. 2 postseason bid.
The Trojans beat the Knights 6-5 in their first meeting this season, before North Lincoln won 6-2 last Friday – on a walk-off grand slam by McPeak – to wrap up the regular season title.
Bunker Hill 11, East Burke 6
The top-seeded Bears (18-5) had a six-run sixth inning via three hits, four walks and two errors by the Cavs to win at Walker Stadium in Lenoir and reach the Northwestern Foothills 2A title game.
Bunker Hill meets third-seeded Fred T. Foard (11-8) in the championship game on Friday at 7 p.m.
The victory over fifth-seeded East Burke (11-13) was career win No. 453 for Bears head coach Marty Curtis, who is in his 35th year at Bunker Hill.
The Bears have already clinched the league’s No. 1 state 2A playoff bid via winning the regular-season championship.
East Burke needed to win the tournament to become playoff eligible. The Cavs’ 11 wins are their most since going 12-10 in 2009. They were 3-20 in 2016.
South Caldwell 8, Freedom 0
The Spartans (22-2), the top seed in the Northwestern 3A-4A tournament, shut out the fifth-seeded Patriots in a semifinal at M.S. Deal Stadium in Granite Falls.
South Caldwell plays second-seeded Alexander Central (19-7) in the tournament final at Deal on Friday at 7 p.m.
Trent Black threw a complete game one-hitter against Freedom (13-12) with Tyler Delay getting the Patriots’ only hit. Black threw 64 of his 83 pitches for strikes, walked none and struck out 14 (five called, nine swinging).
Austin Blevins had two hits and an RBI, Curtis Massagee drove in two runs, Tyler Wike had two hits and Jarrett Pritchard and Clay Canale each drove in a run for the Spartans.
Nick Rhoney did not get an out in taking the loss for Freedom. He gave up two hits and three runs (all earned) as one of five Patriots pitchers.
South Caldwell led 3-0 after one inning and 5-0 through the second inning.
The Spartans have the top 4A seed from the conference for next week’s state 4A playoffs.
Alexander Central 3, McDowell 2
In a Northwestern 3A-4A semifinal at M.S. Deal Stadium in Granite Falls, some key base running lifted the second-seeded Cougars (19-7) into Friday’s tournament title game.
Alexander Central plays top-seed South Caldwell at 7 p.m. in the third meeting of the teams this season. South Caldwell won the regular season games 4-2 and 3-0.
The Cougars knocked off the third-seeded Titans (11-14) when Dalton Stikeleather scored from second base in the sixth inning when McDowell’s catcher dropped a third strike on Justin Cook.
Cook reached first base and Stikeleather rushed home with what proved to be the winning run.
All of the game’s scoring came in the sixth inning, with McDowell going up 1-0 on a run-scoring bunt by Troy Shepherd.
Alexander Central had five hits, led by Byron Younts’ two, and Josh Jacobs and Jacob Bebber drove in a run each for the Cougars.
Reliever Nate Moretz picked up a win after going 1 2/3 innings and striking out one. He came in after Cougars starter Bryson Hammer went 5 1/3 innings, giving up six hits, a run (earned) with two walks and five strikeouts.
Nathan Watkins had two of the Titans’ seven hits and Sydney Pike added two, but McDowell stranded 10 base runners.
Matt Smith took a loss for McDowell, throwing six innings. He gave up five hits, two runs (both earned), walked one and struck out five.
The Titans had the bases loaded with two outs in the seventh inning but Moretz got a groundball out by Pike to end the game.
SOFTBALL
South Caldwell 7, Alexander Central 6
The top-seeded Spartans had a seven-run lead and held off a rally by the second-seeded Cougars (20-5) to win the Northwestern 3A-4A tournament crown in Taylorsville.
South Caldwell (23-2) has won 20 straight games and will go into next week’s state 4A playoffs with a chance to be the overall No. 1 seed.
Alexander Central advances as the league’s top 3A seed.
Ciara Hudson’s two-run home run sparked South Caldwell early, and the Spartans tagged on five runs in the second inning – sending 10 batters to the plate – to open a 7-0 lead.
The Cougars got four runs in the fourth inning, including two on a hit by Ashley Seagle and another on a double by Lanie Goforth – to close within 6-5.
Jenna Pittman came on as a relief pitcher for the Spartans at that point and got two strikeouts to end the inning.
Pittman had gotten eight straight outs when Goforth hit a home run to center field in the seventh inning, closing the gap to a run.
The Spartans ended the game on a catch-and-throw double play.
South Caldwell beat Alexander Central for the second time this season, after the Cougars won their first regular season matchup 7-1 in Taylorsville. The Spartans won at home 11-9.
All-tournament: Parker Brown, McDowell; Lea Conner, McDowell; Ashley Seagle, Alexander Central; Chesney Millsaps, Alexander Central; Lanie Goforth, Alexander Central; Ciara Hanson, S. Caldwell; Cydney Combs, S. Caldwell; Jasmine Hall, S. Caldwell.
Tournament MVP: Jenna Pittman, S. Caldwell.
North Lincoln 5, Maiden 4
The second-seeded Knights nipped the top-seeded and host Blue Devils for the first time in three games this season, winning the South Fork 2A tournament title.
North Lincoln improved to 16-4 and two of those losses are to Maiden, 8-3 and 8-7 in the regular season.
No other game details were available.
Maiden and North Lincoln each went 12-2 in the regular season and shared the title but Maiden’s sweep secured the league’s No. 1 bid into the state 2A playoffs.
The Knights will advance to the postseason as the conference’s No. 2 seed.
Bunker Hill 10, East Burke 3
A six-run fifth inning carried the third-seeded Bears (11-6) past the seventh-seeded Cavs (5-15) and into the Northwestern Foothills 2A tournament title game at West Iredell.
Payton Goble hit a grand slam in the fifth inning for Bunker Hill. She was also the winning pitcher, throwing a complete game and giving up four hits, three runs, walking one and striking out seven.
East Burke took a 3-1 lead in the top of the third with three runs before the Bears cut that to 3-2 with a run in the bottom of the inning.
Bunker Hill scored twice in the fourth inning to go ahead for good at 4-3 and then made it 10-3 with the explosion in the fifth inning.
The Bears had 12 hits.
Bunker Hill faces top-seeded Fred T. Foard (17-2) – a 6-2 winner at West Iredell over the Warriors in Thursday’s other semifinal – at 6 p.m. on Friday for the championship.
The Tigers swept the Bears in the regular season, winning 4-1 in eight innings at Bunker Hill and 3-2 in eight innings at Foard.
GIRLS SOCCER
Lake Norman Charter 9, West Lincoln 0
The Knights completed their South Fork 2A schedule unbeaten by winning on Senior Night.
Ayden Yates scored two goals and had three assists, and Kasey Hahn had a goal for Lake Norman Charter. Seniors scored the rest of the Knights’ goals – Olivia Masterton two, Alex Behnke on a free kick, Maddie Simons had two and Carsyn Yates had one.
Senior Olivia Tanaka had two assists for the Knights (17-0-1).
Kaela Rasenberger was in goal for Lake Norman Charter.
Leia Simmons had seven saves in goal for West Lincoln and Kendra Odom made three.
Lake Norman Charter is the top seed into the state 2A playoffs from the South Fork 2A and will get a home first-round match on Wednesday.
Pairings for the postseason have not yet been released.