The Avery varsity baseball team journey three times to Wilkes County to take on Wilkes Central on two occasions, sandwiched between by a trip to North Wilkes.Avery began last Monday with a trip to state-ranked 2A team Wilkes Central. The Eagles shut out the Vikings in the first game by a final score of 19-0, but the young Avery team still found positives out of the contest.
“We’ve had zero practices on any type of playing surface other than a gym floor. We have spent half our practices in the cafeteria and have only taken batting practice in the cage one time, which is why we schedule games off the mountain this early in the season. I know we’re going to play when we travel there,” Avery varsity baseball head coach Benny Wellborn said.
“Each game we have made improvement. We’re making fewer errors and throwing more strikes. I make sure to tell our players that right now we want to leave a game a better ball club than we were when we took the field. Although it doesn’t reflect it in the score, I believe we did that.”
Last Saturday afternoon the Vikings traveled to Hays to take on North Wilkes. In the battle of the Vikings the North club built an early lead, but Avery battled back into the game.
Danny Ray Cole and Ethan Sluder both reach base to open the game and came around to score for an early 2-0 lead before North rallied in the bottom of the first with a pair to tie the game.
Following a scoreless second inning, Avery struck for two additional runs in the top of the third frame. Sluder led off with a double and scored on an RBI single by Daniel Huff. Huff also scored on a Jack Buchanan RBI base hit to put the visiting Vikings up 4-2.
North’s bats also woke up in the bottom of the frame for three runs to take its first lead at 5-4.
Danny Ray Cole reached base for the second time in three at-bats with a walk in the top of the fourth, and later scored his third run of the game on an RBI groundout from Steven Daniels to knot the game at 5-5.
North erupted for its largest offensive flurry in the bottom of the fourth, however. The home team plated six runs on four hits in the inning, giving them a commanding 11-5 advantage after four innings.
Following the North Wilkes spurt, Avery held the Vikings to only three hits and no runs over the final three innings. The effort afforded the Big Red the chance to claw back into the game.
Avery plated four runs in the top of the fifth, immediately answering the North scoring spree. Jack Buchanan and C.J. Vance both reached on walks, while pinch hitter Joe Buchanan rapped a single to reach safely, while Jack Buchanan came around to score the first run of the inning, With two outs in the frame, Sluder came through for the third straight time with a two-RBI double to left field, scoring Buchanan and Vance to cut the deficit to 11-9.
One inning later the Avery club drew to within a single run when Jared Clark led off the frame with a solo home run to right field. Clark battled the Wilkes pitcher through a long at-bat before getting the best of the hurler.
Unfortunately Avery could not score a tying run in the top of the seventh inning, falling short in an 11-10 loss.
“We made improvements from the Wilkes Central game to the North game. I told the guys that it was like we were a Little League team on Monday and played more like a high school team on Saturday. We made that big of a step,” Coach Wellborn stated. “We put the ball in play for ten runs, we ran the bases well, we only made two errors. We continue to improve, and that’s all you can ask of your players.”
This past Monday Avery again ventured to take on Wilkes Central. Avery began the contest scoring a run in the top of the first inning when Danny Ray Cole singled to left field and scored for an early 1-0 lead.
The single run was all the scoring Avery could get for the contest. Wilkes Central answered with 14 runs on 14 hits to bury the Big Red in a hole they could not climb out of as the Eagles earned a 22-1 victory in four innings.
“Wilkes Central is one of the best one-through-nine hitting teams in the state. Although the score doesn’t indicate it, we played better against them the second time than we did the first,” Coach Wellborn said. “We pitched better and threw more strikes. We put the ball in play, and cut down our errors. We’re progressing right now, and our main focus is to take the opportunities we get in game situations to get better.”
Avery will take to the diamond looking for its first win this Friday when they travel for a rematch with North Wilkes. The Viking junior varsity squad, who lost its only contest this season thus far at North, will have its own rematch with North’s JV club that same evening.
