Baseball:The Avery Vikings varsity baseball team used a strong inning to open a lead on visiting Thomas Jefferson Academy. The Gryphons rallied in the top of the sixth to cut the Avery lead to 7-6.
Avery starting pitcher Daniel Huff retired TJCA with the tying run on base to preserve a one-run margin. In the bottom of the inning, catcher Steven Daniels helped out his battery mate by belting a towering two-run home run to left center field to give the Big Red a 9-6 lead. "Steven hitting the ball deep to give us those pair of insurance runs was big for us," Avery head baseball coach Benny Wellborn said after the game. "We hoped to close the game out a little earlier, but our kids kept battling hard and got the win."
The Avery defense shut the door in the top of the seventh to capture the three-run win.
Huff picked up the win in a 100-pitch, complete game effort. "That's probably Daniel's best pitching performance of the year. Getting seven innings from him can do nothing but help us," Avery head baseball coach Benny Wellborn said. "The kid battled hard the whole game and deserved to be out there to finish it."
Offensively, Daniels was 2 for 4 with three RBI, Danny Cole with 2 for 3 with three runs scored, while Luke Pittman was 2 for 3 with a pair of runs batted in.
Avery baseball returns to the diamond Friday with another key conference contest, this time against the perennially tough Hendersonville Bearcats.
Soccer:
In a match pitting two of the best teams in both the Western Highlands Conference and the entire state, the Avery Lady Vikings and the Hendersonville Lady Bearcats played to a scoreless tie in overtime at Dietz Field on Wednesday evening.
The Hendersonville squad, defending their home turf, started the game with more intensity of than the Lady Vikings after their two-hour bus ride The Bearcats dominated the first part of the game, but the Lady Vikings knuckled down and didn't let the Bearcats score.
Partway through the half, the Bearcats coach was given a warning after he argued with the referee after he awarded a throw-in to Avery. The play in general was physical, with the Lady Bearcats generally winning the 50-50 balls and going at the Avery players with little regard to their own bodies and definitely no regard to inflicting injury on their opponents.
One Hendersonville player was called for "cleats up", a legal slide tackle as far as approach, but dangerous. Another one was called for dangerous play for going for the ball while she was still on the ground. In general, hand balls were not called, even in the box.
Towards the end of the first half, the Avery coaches were thinking that going into half-time with no score would be a plus for Avery.
In the second half, Avery had the wind at their backs rather than in their face, a distinct advantage. The Lady Vikings picked up their game in the second half, although still not playing at the level the coaches knew they could.
In the first half, the Bearcats outshot the Vikings 24 to 12.
Mercedes Bentley had 10 saves in the half. In the second half, with a more offense generated by the Lady Vikings, they outshot Hendersonville 11 to 7. Bentley had an additional 3 saves. Each team had two corner kicks in regulation. The Hendersonville coaches substituted liberally throughout the game, but the Viking squad, down one starter, put only one sub into the game. The coaches were concerned that this would be a factor if the game went to overtime, which it did.In the first overtime period, the Lady Vikings defended with the wind, but still were not able to get a ball in the goal. The Lady Bearcats did, however score in the first half of OT, but much to the Viking's relief, it was not counted due to an offsides call against the Bearcats.
"We outplayed them again, and they know that. It was a great match, and I'm positive we'll see them again in the playoffs," Hendersonville head coach Freddy Oviedo said to local media after the match.
As the second half of OT was winding down, Mary Chesnut Smith was making a desperate run towards the goal when three defenders took her down, even calling out to each other to "take her out". Avery was awarded a free kick, which Smith was preparing to take. The clock was ticking down to under 20 seconds, the coaches were calling for her to hurry and take the kick, but a Hendersonville player was standing right in front of her, hoping by delaying that the clock would run out. She was awarded a card for her effort, after the referee called for the clock to be stopped.
Smith took the kick with 4.4 seconds left on the clock. It was so close but it knicked the upright and was deflected away from the goal with a 0-0 tie game as the result.
Avery extends its unbeaten streak to 13 with a 12-0-1 record overall. Hendersonville moves to 10-4-1 for the season. The Lady Vikings will host Polk County in its next match coming up on Monday evening at MacDonald Stadium.
