Avery Middle School and Cranberry Middle School squared off on the diamond for baseball and softball matchups, with the Avery Panthers coming out on top in both contests.
In the softball matchup in Newland, the Lady Panthers pitching staff held the Lady Wildcats bats at bay en route to a win, while starting pitcher AJ Masters went the seven-inning distance in Cranberry, striking out nine hitters while giving up only three runs in a 13-3 victory.
"A.J. throws the ball really well. He has spots where most pitchers might falter, but he bounces back to throw strike after strike. I believe he is one of the league's best," Avery Panthers manager Donnie Johnson said after the win. "We were conservative on the bases on Monday, but I noticed we were more aggressive with our leads. We sent more guys home from third with the ball just getting into the infielders' hands, and the guys did a good job watching the ball come in and getting across. Our kids really gave all they had out there tonight."
Dustin Clark smacked a deep home run over the center field fence as part of a three-run second inning to give Avery the lead for good at 3-2.
Landon Powell pitched five innings for the Wildcats and threw well, giving up very few earned runs in the loss. "Landon pitched pretty well. I believe we just struggled fielding the ball tonight, not knowing where to go with the ball and making some errors and bad throws," Cranberry manager Kent Hayes remarked following the contest.
"Avery Middle put the ball in play, and we didn't do quite as good a job putting the ball in play."
On Monday the Panthers lost a pair of games to East Yancey by scores of 7-0 and 17-9, while Cranberry fell in two contests to Bowman by scores of 7-3 and 9-3 the same evening.
Avery Middle baseball hosts Bowman and Harris next week, while Cranberry travels to Cane River and East Yancey for conference contests.
