Last Friday afternoon Avery played its second game in five days against Hendersonville. The Vikings showed no effects from the earlier loss to the Bearcats and used the earlier loss as motivational fuel in pounding Hendersonville 13-3 at home Friday afternoon.The tone of the contest was set with the first batter, as Viking left fielder Sutton Stanley made a great diving catch on a ball hit from Bearcat leadoff hitter Paul Posthumus.
Avery held Hendersonville scoreless in the first and struck for a run itself in the bottom half off Bearcats starter Walgenbach. A Chris Childress leadoff double was followed by a groundout and a sacrifice fly from Adam Pate to manufacture a run and put the Big Red on the scoreboard.
Childress was also strong on the mound as he pitched a complete game and surrendered only eight hits and struck out four batters. After holding the Bearcats scoreless in the second, Avery padded its lead with a five-run frame on five hits, four of which were doubles. The Viking bats forced a Bearcats pitching change at inning’s end as Avery built a 6-0 lead.
Hendersonville finally broke through with a pair of runs in the third to narrow the gap to 6-2. Avery was retired in order for the only time in the game following the Bearcats runs, giving the visitors a chance to creep closer. Childress continued to keep Hendersonville in check, however, working out of trouble with a strikeout to leave a Bearcat stranded on third base to close the top of the fourth.
Avery put away the game for good in the bottom of the frame, batting around to score five runs off the Bearcats bullpen. The first seven hitters to come to the plate reached safely by single or error, with RBI hits by Steven Daniels and Zac Hall helping to push the Big Red lead to 11-2.
After a Hendersonville run in the top of the fifth, Avery put the finishing touches on a ten-run rout. Brooks Oakley singled to lead off the frame and Daniels walked two batters later. A two-out grounder by Daniel Huff was thrown away by the shortstop, allowing both Oakley and pinch-runner Ethan Sluder to score the final runs of the game.
“This was probably the most complete ballgame we have played all year from the standpoint of doing the little things right. Chris pitched an excellent game and the defense played behind him,” Coach Wellborn said after the win. “The bottom line was our attitudes were better, our approaches at the plate were better, and the base running was probably one of the best efforts we’ve had all season. We hustled and put pressure on the defense, forced some close plays, and they made some bad throws. It was a huge win because they had only one conference loss. We did just about everything right, the kids’ spirits were high, and hopefully it will provide us some momentum to roll into this coming week.”
Avery hosts Polk in a key 1A conference battle this afternoon at ACHS, then hosts Madison on Thursday, with a home game against Thomas Jefferson on Friday afternoon.
