The Scotland junior-varsity baseball team defeated Hoke County 9-5 on Wednesday at McCoy Field, and the jayvee Scots will have the opportunity to play for second place in the conference when they end the regular season at Jack Britt on Friday.

Scotland, now 16-3 overall and 10-3 in the M-SEC, scored six runs in the fourth inning to take control of the game. Scotland goes to Jack Britt on Friday at 5 p.m.; the Scots lost 5-4 at home to the Buccaneers on Apr. 3 in Laurinburg.

Will Gover was the winning pitcher. He worked all seven innings, scattering six hits and five walks and allowing four earned runs while striking out five.

Gover also helped himself with the bat, going 2-for-4 with two runs scored and two driven in. Derek Barnes — who has made it back to the team after breaking his jaw in two places during a collision at first base early in the season — was 2-for-3 with a three-run double.

Jay Coleman went 2-for-3 with a stolen base, one RBI and two runs scored. Alex Fricke was 1-for-3 with an RBI and two runs scored, Daniel Walters and Tim Chavis were both 1-for-3 with a double, Casion Murphy went 1-for-3 with a walk and a steal, and catcher Matt Radford was 1-for-4 with a stolen base and a run scored.

"It took us a while to get rolling, but in the fourth inning we kind of exploded by scoring six runs," said SHS head coach Michael Sellers. "We didn't play as well as we are capable of playing, but we made plays when we had to make plays, and we put the bat on the ball and scored some runs when we had to."