One team celebrated with a dogpile while the other side looked on with a mixture of disappointment and deliriousness. Babies cried, not because of sadness, but rather because their bedtime was hours ago. Parents realized that they, too, should be in bed as they reached for their cameras.
All of this happened around 11 p.m. on Friday night, shortly after Scotland’s baseball team won a 3½ hour battle with Hoke in the Sandhills Athletic Conference tournament championship game, a battle that included a combined 29 runs, 28 hits and 22 walks.
After Scotland fell behind 13-8 in the sixth inning, they rallied to take a 16-13 lead in the bottom of the same frame. Scotland’s Tyler Barfield was tasked with picking up the game’s final three outs in the seventh, and he came through, ending the contest with a strikeout that drew about as many sighs of relief as it did cheers.
A strong offensive showing was expected; both teams were playing their third game of the week, and they were at the end of their pitching rotations. But after the start of the contest was delayed by 20 minutes while gear was delivered to an official, no one was prepared for a game that featured video game-like statistics.
Not even Scotland coach Chad Hill.
“I looked at my clock and it was 9:49, and I think we were in the fourth inning,” Hill said.
But in the moments after the game, the result temporarily supplanted the process in the minds of Scotland’s players. After stunning top-seeded Pinecrest earlier in the week to advance to the championship game, the Scots finished the job in front of a big crowd in Laurinburg.
“They don’t ask how. They ask what the score is,” Stewart Evans said after his three-RBI performance.
Scotland will now look to keep its season going in the first round of the NCHSAA 4A state playoffs. The Scots will play at Mooresville at 6 p.m. on Tuesday. Pinecrest, which earned a first-round bye, awaits the winner of that game.
Mooresville finished in a tie for first place in the I-Meck Conference standings after posting a 12-2 mark in league play. The Blue Devils’ overall record is 16-9.
But records don’t mean much now. It’s time to win or go home.
“We need to keep winning and stay red-hot,” outfielder Matt Sellers said.
