The Avery baseball teams made up for lost time on the field with multiple games last week. On Tuesday the Vikings traveled to Hendersonville
The Bearcats tacked on a pair of runs in both the second and third innings to shore up the victory.
Despite the defeat, Avery still showed signs of improvement. The offense recorded less strikeouts than in previous contests and will show more marked development as the season continues.
“Right now we’re making progressions at the plate. We’re not striking out as much which is huge for us,” Avery head baseball coach Benny Wellborn said after the game. “Eventually we’re going to start having balls that we hit fall for us and we’ll start reaching base more.”
On Friday the Vikings traveled to take on defending Western Highlands Conference champion
The afternoon began with the junior varsity contest, where the Wolverines handed Avery a 15-1 defeat.
Avery picked up its lone run in the top of the fourth inning when an RBI single from Dustin Clark plated teammate Bennett Sweat. Dillon Nelson started on the mound for the Vikings, while Sweat came on in relief to close out the contest.
“We started out with a good couple of innings, and we struggled a little with our pitching. I take some responsibility as I have been working so much with the players on hitting that the pitching aspect might not be as strong,” Avery junior varsity head coach Samuel Phillips said after the contest. “Putting a whole game together is what we’re lacking right now, to be able to work together from start to finish in the game. The players are responding to me and listening as a team. We’re improving, but there definitely are areas we can work on and get better.”
Following the JV action and before the varsity teams took the field, the team was dealt a hard blow when starting left fielder Remington Austin was hit in the eye before the game by a baseball that ricocheted inside the batting cage where he was pitching for batting practice.
The accident proved a bad harbinger of things to come, as
Polk drew first blood in the bottom of t
he first frame with three runs to take a 3-0 lead. Wolverine starter Brandon Jolley held Avery hitless until a Luke Pittman single in the top of the third broke the ice.Avery starter Daniel Huff held Polk scoreless in the second, retiring the Wolverines in order. In the bottom of the third inning, however, Polk exploded for 11 runs, highlighted by a three-run home run by first baseman Tyler Philpott off Avery relief pitching.
The Vikings could only manage to advance one player to second base over the course of the game as Polk was dominant in all phases of the contest. One of the few bright spots for the Big Red occurred in the bottom of the fourth inning when shortstop C.J. Vance made a diving catch with his back to home plate on a pop fly in short center field.
“Tonight C.J. Vance made one of the greatest catches I’ve ever seen in a high school game,” Coach Benny Wellborn said after the game.
Despite the lopsided score, the Avery head coach sees much potential and encouraging signs from his ball club despite the hard times the team has already faced thus far this season.
“These guys have had to play through a lot of adversity. It’s been the weather and one thing after another. Our player getting injured affected our focus, but the kids didn’t quit,” Coach Wellborn said. “Not to make excuses, but it’s been the toughest season I can think of weather-wise. But we’ve been dealing with the hand dealt to us and we’re working on areas of the game one step at a time. As long as we can do that, we’ll continue to progress.”
Avery saw firsthand the fruits of its labor on a cold and rainy Monday evening with a non-conference trip to
Senior Steven Daniels started on the mound for the Vikings and pitched a solid 6 and 1/3 innings. Daniels ran into a spot of trouble in the bottom of the seventh, but Dustin Childress came in out of the bullpen to work the final 2/3 scoreless innings.
The Vikings opened the game strong with three runs in the top of the first inning to take an early lead. Ethan Sluder singled, followed up by a Daniel Huff RBI double. Daniels followed with an RBI single and scored on a hit from Jared Clark.
Daniels helped his own cause later in the game with a towering home run to right field. Also going deep for the Vikings was lead-off hitter Danny Cole, who parked a pitch over the left field fence for a two-run homer in the top of the fourth inning.
“We had to wait for an hour on umpires, the field was wet and it was a cold rain, but give the kids credit where it’s due for hanging in there. It’s like Dustin Childress, who sat in the cold rain for two hours on the bench and was called on to come into the game. We were in a situation where the game could get ugly, and he stepped up and finished the game for us,” Coach Wellborn stated. “It was awesome to see how everybody stayed in the ball game. This was probably the best Cloudland team that I have coached against, and their pitcher was pretty good. We made some adjustments and were able to get a few hits off him. This was something the kids needed tonight.”
Avery’s conference game at
