The Avery varsity baseball team traveled to Wilkes County on Thursday afternoon for its opening game of the 2009 season at perennial 2A power Wilkes Central. Avery played a good defensive contest and received solid pitching, but a pair of mistakes was capitalized on by the Eagles in a 9-2 Wilkes Central victory.Brooks Oakley got the ball for the Vikings to start on the mound and was strong, giving up no hits through his first 3 2/3 innings pitched while striking out a number of Eagles. Oakley’s no-hit and shutout bids were lost with two outs in the bottom of the fourth as a bloop single and a walk were followed by a three-run home run to give Wilkes Central the lead for good.
The Vikings rallied to score a pair of runs and cut the lead to 3-2, but a second three-run bomb by the Eagles gave the home team insurance and put the contest out of reach. Coach Wellborn called on Adam Pate to come on in relief and he finished the contest with 2 1/3 innings of work.
Avery struggled offensively to come back in the later innings as the Vikings hitters were unable to adjust to breaking pitches thrown by the Eagles pitching staff of starter Parks Smithey and relievers Cody Zaleski and J.T. Steelman.
“The difference is the game was they had two big hits. Both teams had six hits in the game. From the third inning on, and overall, we saw about 85 to 90 percent breaking pitches, especially late in the game when they became aware that we were struggling with them,” Avery head coach Benny Wellborn remarked after the contest. “We left seven runners on base, five of them in scoring position, and not hitting the breaking balls to and putting the ball in play really hurt us.”
Despite the loss, the Big Red took a number of positives away from the game. Avery was playing without the services of Daniel Huff and Chris Childress, while several other players were playing through the symptoms or just getting over the effects of influenza. Avery also played well defensively, committing only one error which could easily have been ruled a hit.
“Give credit to the kids, they didn’t stop playing. They hustled, they played well, and they didn’t give up,” Coach Wellborn said of his team.
Adam Pate was 2 for 4 at the plate for the game, while Danny Ray Cole was 1 for 2 and Steven Daniels was 1 for 3. Brooks Oakley added a hit at the plate, while senior Sutton Stanley put the ball in play on multiple occasions.
“We had a lot of kids playing out of position with the case of the flu running through our team. Zac Hall did a great job at second base. Jack Buchanan played well at third base. Sutton Stanley had to play outfield and played well, while Danny Ray had to come out during the game as he wasn’t able to stay out there because of illness. Cody Shadoin played in right field early on and gave us some good plays. We were trying to experiment with players at different positions and all the kids responded well,” Coach Wellborn elaborated. “I was very pleased with the outcome, even though we did take one in the loss column. There are not many times that you are happy with a loss, but I can truly say that this game compared with McDowell was many strides forward, and that was great to see.”
Avery will play three games in all this week, culminating with games at Hampton on Thursday and at Thomas Jefferson Classical Academy on Friday.
