It was far from a work of art, but the Mocksville Junior Legion baseball team managed to stave off the visiting Davidson County Three Hawgs, 9-6, on June 1. Five pitchers combined for 12 walks, but Mocksville compensated with one monster inning.
The next game against the same opponent was a similar story. Mocksville handed out 15 walks, but it showed poise at crunch time, scored the last seven runs and won 18-11.
Davie 9, Davidson County Three 6
One huge eruption was the difference in this one. Mocksville turned a 2-0 deficit into a comfortable 8-2 lead in the third.
After Ben Bost and Britt Sink reached base, Jacob Bryson, Wade Ridenhour and Jason Riddle put together consecutive singles. A walk and an error was followed by Lance Lowder’s two-run double as Post 174 ended up sending 11 batters to the plate and scoring eight runs on four hits, two errors and a hit batsman.
The Hawgs never recovered. The offensive leader was Carter Cornett, who went 2 for 3. Getting one hit were Bost (1-1, walk), Lowder (1-2, two RBIs), Hunter Bishop (1-1), Ridenhour (1-3) and Riddle (1-2, two runs, two walks). Coach Jerry Riddle employed five pitchers, three of whom kept Davidson County off the scoreboard: Tay Settecasi (one inning), Bryson (1/3 of an inning) and Luke Sorrell (one IP).
Mocksville 18, Davidson County Three 11
Riddle wasn’t thrilled about 15 walks from his first five pitchers, but to say the offense provided the desired results would be an understatement after visiting Mocksville outlasted Davidson County Three on June 2.
Mocksville pounded out 16 hits and extended its winning three to three in a marathon game that lasted three hours, 15 minutes.
“The safest place at Holt Moffitt Field was standing on top of home plate,” Riddle said jokingly. “My words of wisdom all night was throw strikes. Throw a strike and let them hit it. I was even saying: ‘Hey, just a BP strike. Let them hit it and we will do what we’ve got to do.’ We got three in a row in the last inning – three up, three down. Unbelievable. That was the first time all night for anybody.”
Mocksville’s hurlers combined for 201 pitches, 110 balls, 15 walks and two hit batsmen. Davidson County had its own struggles on the hill, with six pitchers throwing 196 pitches and issuing 10 free bases (eight walks, two hit batters).
Mocksville watched an 11-6 lead vanish in the fifth. After five runs had crossed, the bases were loaded with two outs when Riddle made a mound visit. He summoned Bost, who promptly fell behind 2-0 and 3-1 in the count before rising up in the moment. He punched him out with a fullcount swinging strikeout, and Mocksville carried that momentum to the sixth.
“That out was huge,” Riddle said. “I felt like not getting behind there was crucial because they had been behind the whole game. And if we had gone down, it could have affected the way we swung it; it would’ve been a little pressure.”
In the top of the sixth, Cyrus Basinger’s double plated Cornett, and Basinger scored on wild pitch as Mocksville regained control at 13-11.
Post 174 applied the exclamation point in a five-run seventh. The first seven batters – Sink, Ridenhour, Riddle, Cornett, Basinger, Preston Young and Bishop – reached on a hit or walk as the lead swelled to 18-11.
Cornett led the way again by going 3 for 4 with three runs and three RBIs. Ridenhour matched him by going 3-5 with two RBIs. The hit parade included Sink (2-4, four runs), Riddle (2-3, two RBIs, two walks), Basinger (2-4, two RBIs, two runs), Young (2-4, two RBIs) and Bishop (2-4, two RBIs, two steals).
“We were very patient at the plate,” Riddle said. “Steady at-bats and got a lot of two-strike hits. I felt like it was our best outing swinging it for sure.”
After the first four pitchers went 1, 1.2, 1.2 and 1/3 of an inning, Bost got the win by recording two outs and Bryson closed the door by retiring five of the last six batters.
Although Mocksville rolled to 4-0 in the division, Riddle said things become real in the near future and then we’ll find out if Post 174 is really a contender in Pod Two. There are three pods in Area III.
“We’ve got both West Forsyths and one of the better Davidson County teams (this) week during the run of six (games in a row),” he said. “Plus we’ve got Randolph County, so we will find out. We will see how it goes. We’ve got to throw it better. If we score 18 like we did (at Holt Moffitt), we will have a chance.”
West Forsyth Blue 10, Mocksville 4
Young belted a grand slam in the second inning, but visiting Mocksville got nothing going after that and watched West score the last nine runs on June 4. Mocksville had five errors and two hits. Yikes.
In the second, Ridenhour walked, Riddle singled and Bryson walked to load the bases for Young, who jumped all over an 0-2 pitch and turned a 1-0 deficit into a 4-1 lead with one swing.
Mocksville, though, could get nothing going the rest of the night. The bats went down 1-2-3 in the third, fourth and sixth, and the only baserunners after Young were five walks.
West, only the other hand, played like a 5-0 team. It collected 10 hits and played perfect defense. Bost had two of Mocksville’s eight walks, but that edge was negated by 10 strikeouts.
Mocksville fell to 6-3 overall and 4-1 in the pod.