Wednesday Prep Roundup

Avery baseball scored three first-inning runs, then staved off a late Hampton rally to hold on for a 5-4 win on Wednesday in Carter County, TN.

Preston Jennings got the starting pitching nod and threw well in his season debut. The senior right hander went three innings+. Avery built a 4-0 lead, but Hampton rallied to score three runs in the bottom of the third on five straight base hits to cut the lead to one. Jon Hensley came on in relief of Jennings in the third, but was unable to retire a batter. Coach Benny Wellborn then called on Brooks Oakley to pitch, and the right hander struck out two of the next three batters and went the distance to secure the win.

Avery plays at Wilkes Central in a non-conference game on Friday.

In soccer action Wednesday evening the Avery Lady Vikings extended its non-losing streak to three games with a 1-0 win at MacDonald Stadium against the Pisgah Lady Bears. The game winning goal occurred in the 67th minute as Brianna Strange assisted on a goal by Mary Chesnut Smith. Avery plays this evening in a non-conference match at North Wilkes High School.

Vikings Outdueled by Wolverines in Polk County

The Avery JV and varsity baseball teams traveled to Columbus this evening for a 1A conference match against Polk County. The junior varsity squad had difficulty against the strong pitching of the Polk southpaw starter, only mustering a single walk in five innings of play.

Avery starter Daniel Huff gave a solid pitching effort to the Big Red, surrendering only three runs through the first three innings of play. Polk used timely hitting and took advantage of walks issued by the Avery relief corps to extend the lead to an eventual 10-0 victory.

Tuesday's varsity action set up to be an exciting pitcher's matchup between Avery's Seth Phillips and Polk's Brandon Jolley. The two did not disappoint, combining for 18 strikeouts in the contest. Despite the strong performances on the mound, both teams were able to generate offense at the plate and on the base paths.

Polk took advantage of a walk, two errors, and a balk (all with two outs) to score four runs in the bottom of the 2nd inning. Avery surrendered a fifth run in the third inning to lead 5-0, but the Vikings pieced together four straight singles off Jolley in the bottom of the third to cut the lead to 5-3. This, Avery's final and best offensive threat of the game, ended with the bases loaded. Jolley helped his own cause with a solo home run to right field for an insurance run to provide for the final 6-3 margin as Brandon's brother Nick came on in the top of the seventh for a 1-2-3 inning to pick up the save.

Phillips pitched a complete game of six innings, throwing 115 pitches and striking out 10 hitters while giving up only eight hits. Avery takes on Hampton and Wilkes Central in non-confernece games later this week.

Lady Bucs Already Looking For Next Seaon

The ETSU Lady Bucs made history last Saturday night in, of all places, Des Moines, Iowa. When the Lady Bucs took the floor at the Wells Fargo Center, one of the most successful seasons in the program’s history reached a historic milestone as the Lady Bucs squared off against Oklahoma State in the opening round of the NCAA tournament.

“I’m very proud of my teammates, we did something that no other team has done before at East Tennessee State,” Michelle DeVault said in an NCAA interview. “We proved that we not only belonged in this tournament, but that we could play with the best and we hung in there with a really good team, so I’m really proud of my teammates.”

“It feels good just to make history and get into the history books,” TaRonda Wiles said at a postgame press conference. “We want to go farther next year.”

Wiles’ teammates echoed her thoughts of next year, and for good reason. While the Lady Bucs fell to Oklahoma State, the Lady Bucs finished what is arguably the best season in program history. In addition to the program’s first NCAA bid, the Lady Buccaneers tied a school record 21 wins, including winning 15 of their last 17 games, capturing both the regular season and tournament Atlantic Sun Conference championships. The Lady Bucs also scored 2,478 points, the most team points scored in a single season in program history. While they lose four talented seniors, DeVault, Jenny Norman, Nichelle Akers and Kelly Truman, the Lady Bucs return nine players including Siarre Evans, who was the team’s leading scorer and rebounder.

“To be apart of this team with such great chemistry, it felt like we should have gone farther in the tournament,” Latisha Belcher said. “But that will have to wait until next year.”

Oklahoma State coach Kurt Budke even praised the Lady Bucs in his postgame press conference for the heart and dedication they showed.

“Credit East Tennessee State, they outcoached and outplayed us tonight,” Budke said. “They believe in themselves and they believe they can play with anybody.”

While this season did not end like a fairy tale, the Lady Bucs have every intention of playing the part of Cinderella next season.

Lady Vikings Drop Match at Hendersonville & Tie Burns; Bounce Back with Rout at Mitchell

Despite a rainout which postponed Wednesday’s conference match with Polk County, the Avery High women’s soccer team competed in a pair of physical road matches, dropping a 3-0 decision in Hendersonville to the top-5 ranked Lady Bearcats, but rebounded to finish with a 2-2 overtime tie at Burns High School on Good Friday afternoon.

In Monday’s match, Avery held the Lady Bearcats to a goal for most of the first half. However, Hendersonville was able to take advantage of Lady Viking mental miscues to bury an additional two goals in net in the final two minutes of the half to get its three-goal advantage. The second half was a stalemate as the Lady Vikings were held scoreless for a second straight match. The defense remained dedicated to the effort, however, holding the Bearcats scoreless in the final 40 minutes.

“Mentally we didn’t come prepared to play the match, especially in the first half, and they just took it to us,” Avery head coach Tom Evaul said following the defeat.

On Friday the Lady Vikings made the trek to Lawndale in Cleveland County for a non-conference match with the 3A Burns Lady Bulldogs. The Lady Vikings struck early in the contest for a goal, as freshman Emily Banner scored in the first four minutes off an assist by Brianna Strange. The goal held up as the Lady Vikings led 1-0 at intermission.

Burns came out with renewed intensity to open the second half, as the Lady Bulldogs took advantage of a defensive miscommunication to split the defense for a goal in the opening minutes, knotting the match at 1-1. At approximately the sixth minute mark, Avery again retook the lead at 2-1 as Melinda Eggers assisted on a goal inside the box by senior Katie Peters. With around 23 minutes remaining, Burns found a way to escape a scrambling Vikings back line to score the equalizer to tie the match 2-2.

The score remained unchanged through the remainder of regulation, and the teams made the decision to play two-10 minute overtime sessions. The squads remained scoreless through the first session. In the second ten minutes, Burns kept the ball in the Avery defensive half of the field for the overwhelming majority of the period, but the Vikings were stingy, turning away an indirect kick as well as a pair of corner kick opportunities to conclude the match in a tie.

“Burns has a couple of good girls up front and a good sweeper. We scored early, but the match did not play out as easily as perhaps we might have thought it might,” Coach Evaul stated. “We did a lot of standing around, and we need to work on being a little more aggressive and going to the ball a little more than we did in this match.”

This evening Avery traveled to Ledger to play a conference match at Mitchell. Through brutal cold and snowy conditions, the Lady Vikings took a 4-0 lead on the Lady Mountaineers into halftime. Avery continued pouring it on with six additional goals in the first 40 minutes of the second half for a commanding 10-0 win.

Emily Banner tallied a hat trick by midway through the second half for the Lady Vikings as Avery prepares for a home match on Wednesday and a match at North Wilkes on Thursday.

Avery Baseball Rescheduled

The baseball game between Avery and Hampton has been rescheduled for Wednesday at 4:30pm.

ETSU Lady Bucs Fall In NCAA Tournament

The ETSU women’s basketball team saw their outstanding season come to an end on Saturday night after giving Oklahoma State everything they could handle as the Cowgirls advanced to the second round of the NCAA Women’s tournament 85-73.

“There are really no words to describe how proud I am of this team,” Lady Buc coach Karen Kemp said. “They came out and played very hard. My biggest fear going into this game was that we would just be in awe of everything because we were in our first NCAA Tournament. We played really focused. We knew Oklahoma State was a good basketball team. I felt like we came out and gave it everything we had and played a good basketball game.”

The Lady Bucs and Cowgirls traded shots to open the contest as the Lady Bucs took an early 14-11 lead thanks to two Michelle DeVault 3-pointers. However, the Cowgirls went on a 20-7 run to take a 29-17 lead with 7:54 remaining in the half. DeVault hit another 3-pointer to close the gap to 31-22, but the Lady Bucs were unable to gain anymore on Oklahoma State. The Cowgirls took a 41-29 lead at the break.

The Lady Bucs, however, did not give up in the second half. ETSU responded to an Oklahoma State 3-pointer with a 6-0 run to open up the second half. However, the Cowgirls went on a 9-0 run to push their lead to 52-35. Siarre Evans and DeVault 3-pointers gave the Lady Bucs momentum as ETSU pulled within seven points with less than nine minutes remaining. However, the clock worked against the Lady Bucs as they could not get closer to the Cowgirls.

“Credit East Tennessee State, they outcoached and outplayed us tonight,” Oklahoma State coach Kurt Budke. “I tried to stress that midmajors such as East Tennessee are very dangerous. ETSU believe in themselves and they believe they can play with anybody. They came out playing very relaxed.”

The Lady Bucs were led by DeVault’s 22 points as she tied a career-high six 3-pointers. Latisha Belcher scored 14 points, while Evans scored 12 points. TaRonda Wiles added 10 points for the Lady Bucs. Oklahoma State was led by All-American Andrea Riley’s 26 points and Maria Cordero added 23 points. The Cowgirls and Lady Bucs were nearly even in rebounding as the Cowgirls won the battle in the paint 46-45. The Lady Bucs also had 17 assists.

The Lady Bucs finished the season by winning 15 of its last 17 games. The team tied a Lady Buc record of 21 victories and captured the first NCAA berth in the program history.