Foard is within a win of reaching 20 or more in a baseball season for the first time since winning 25 games in 2006. Next up: East Rowan or Marvin Ridge.
HobbsDailyReport.com
Fred T. Foard High — focused on trying to win a state 3A baseball title — moved another step closer on Thursday night at home.
The sixth-seeded Tigers had an early three-run lead and held off visiting Asheboro 5-2 in a second round game.
Foard (19-5) advances to a third-round game that must be played by Tuesday. It will be against No. 19 East Rowan (19-10) or No 2 Marvin Ridge (22-5), who play Friday at 7 p.m. at Marvin Ridge.
The Tigers would be at home against East Rowan but travel to Marvin Ridge.
No. 12 seed Asheboro (21-8) outhit Foard 10-4 but could not deliver key hits when it had a chance to chip away at the Tigers’ lead. The Comets left 14 men on base, 10 in scoring position, and had the bases loaded two times and netted only one run.
Austin Houser hit a key home run for Foard in the third inning that helped the Tigers gain a 3-0 edge.
Foard’s Caleb Lutjens gained a win by allowing just two runs on nine hits. He walked three and struck out four in 5 1/3 innings before Houser came on to earn save (no runs, one hit, walks, three strikeouts in 1 2/3 innings).
Houser drove in two runs for the Tigers, who have won six straight games (they had win streaks of six and seven games in the Northwestern 3A-4A regular season).
Parker Clayton had three hits and drove in two runs for Asheboro.
Foard — in the third round for the first time since 2013 and for the third time in 34 seasons – has never played Marvin Ridge in the baseball state playoffs. East Rowan owns two first-round wins over the Tigers (1993, 1998) in their only matchups.
A third-round victory would get Foard its first 20-win season since 2006 (25-4). The Tigers won 11 games a year ago.
4A
No. 2 Lake Norman 4, No. 16 Winston-Salem Reagan 3: At Lake Norman, the Wildcats overcame a 3-1 deficit through six innings to advance to the third round.
The win means the Wildcats (24-3) are at home against No. 27 Mooresville (14-12), a North Piedmont 3A-4A foe, in a third-round game that must be played by Tuesday.
Lake Norman beat Mooresville twice in the NPC 3A-4A regular season, 8-0 and 7-1.
Reagan (16-9) was ahead 3-1 in the sixth inning but the Wildcats rallied for a 3-all tie and won on Zach Ladowski’s RBI single that followed a tying run scoring on a wild pitch.
Ladowski also had a double and Jonathan Perez and Cole Dowles added two hits each for Lake Norman.
Sam Zayicek pitched three innings of scoreless relief to gain a win for the Wildcats.
No. 27 Mooresville 9, No. 8 Butler 5: The highest-remaining seed in the West 4A bracket, Mooresville (14-12) surprised Butler (16-11) in Charlotte.
Butler led 5-4 entering the seventh and the Blue Devils scored five runs to win.
Eric Jackson went 2-for-3 with a double, Brantley Sherrill had a double among his two hits and drove in a run and Sam Iler had a double and three RBIs to spark Mooresville.
Iler had a bases-loaded double in the seventh inning.
FRIDAY GAMES
In 2A, No. 16 Draughn (14-8) goes to top-seeded Forbush (22-3) for a 6 p.m. second round game.
In 4A, No. 6 South Caldwell (18-5) meets No. 11 East Forsyth (21-6) in Hudson at 7 p.m. for a second-round game.
In records dating back to 1984, the Spartans have won seven of their 10 postseason games against teams from Forsyth County but they will be playing East Forsyth for the first time in the postseason.
— For a complete look at the West brackets in 2A, 3A and 4A, review earlier posts on the website.