Scots flattened by Yellow Jackets after 7-run 5th

LAURINBURG — For the first four innings of Tuesday night’s game against the Lee County Yellow Jackets (16-4, 7-2 Sandhills Athletic Conference), the Scotland baseball team (10-7, 3-6 SAC) only trailed 2-0 and seemed to start gaining momentum.

Then, the fifth-inning happened.

Seven runs from the Yellow Jackets would put the Scots in a hole they never could climb out of, as Scotland fell 9-0 and recorded their third shutout in conference play this season.

“Overall, really, it was not 9-0,” Scotland head coach Ricky Schattauer said. “We have to learn that, if we make the error, bounce back and make the next play. If we make those plays, it’s not a 9-0 ballgame.”

After B.J. Brown was walked and Dylan Kelly was hit by pitch in the fifth, Luke Sheets hit an RBI single to kick-start the offensive burst for the Yellow Jackets. Four pitches later, Thomas Frazer doubled to right field to bring in Kelly from second, before Sheets was sent home on a Presley Patterson sac fly to right field, making the Lee County lead 5-0. Carson Beal continued the scoring punch by hitting a line drive and reaching on an error, which allowed Frazier to score. Beal got the eventual last run of the game on a Cameron Cabe ground out to first.

Blane Wagner started the game in the circle for the Scots and finished as the losing pitcher, allowing six runs, with two unearned, on five hits with three walks and three strikeouts in four innings pitched; Dylan Tucker pitched one inning and Garrett Manning threw two in relief for the Scots out of the bullpen.

The performance from Wagner was another one that saw him struggle on paper.

But Schattauer believes it’s not all on him, as inexperience and youth have led to consistent errors this year for the Scots.

“I give Blane a lot of props,” Schattauer said. “I think he pitched game one of the season; I said ‘hey, you’ve got a lot of young guys behind us, like, if they make an error, you’re gonna carry (with) your attitude.’ Yeah, sometimes he hangs his head a little bit here and there but I think it comes with what’s happened behind him. I think, overall, he’s done a great job.”

The Scots recorded just three hits on the night, with two of them coming within the first three innings; Jake Clemmons finished with two and Luke Taylor had one.

A big reason for the offensive struggles was because of Lee County pitcher Walker McDuffie, a North Carolina commit.

“I told the guys in the huddle, ‘he’s going to Chapel Hill for a reason,’” Schattauer said. “He’s a very good pitcher. I think we came in with a plan of hey, we need to try and get him off the bump with our bunts here and there, and try to make him expend a little more energy than he had to just throwing the baseball over the plate. Situationally, that never kind of came about.”

McDuffie earned the win, pitching a complete game and recording 14 strikeouts with one walk.

While the Scots could never get their hitting to come through, they were able to get some balls in play that Lee County had an answer for nearly every time.

Schattauer said he was satisfied for how his team hit the ball “hard.”

“I gave a lot of people in our little huddle some props,” he said. “Dawson (Williams) didn’t have a hit tonight but, (in) his first two at-bats, he hit the ball very hard right back to McDuffie and McDuffie just happened to knock the ball down. If those squib through, you never know what happens in the first-inning; maybe we do go score. Cadyn (Graves) struck out in his first two at-bats but he comes up in the seventh and I said ‘hey, work the other way (to the) guys (Lee County’s) throwing out there.’ And he changes his approach, he hits it hard right at the second baseman, (and it’s a) close play at first base cause he bobbles it a little bit. Jake (Clemmons) hit the ball hard; I told Luke (Taylor) he hit the ball hard back up the middle. I tried to congratulate the guys for hitting the ball hard and maybe they don’t get a hit with that.”

Brown finished with a team-high two runs for the Yellow Jackets; Brown and Sheets each tallied two hits. Brown, Sheets, Frazer, Patterson, and Cabe all had an RBI each.

The Scots play at Lumberton in a nonconference game on Wednesday at 6 p.m.

JV baseball downed by Yellow Jackets

The Scotland JV baseball team (9-3, 5-3 Sandhills Athletic Conference) suffered an 8-4 loss at home against the Lee County Yellow Jackets (5-7-2, 2-3 SAC) Tuesday night.

The Scots managed to take an early 2-1 lead at the end of the first inning and led 4-3 after three innings. But, in the sixth, the Yellow Jackets rallied for four runs and sealed their win with one more in the seventh, all while shutting the Scots’ offense down.

Josh Smith and Charles Sessims each recorded two hits for the JV Scots; Sessims led the team in RBI with two. Cameron Cole, Ryan McCormick, Blaine Callahan, and Smith all had a run.

Josh Hall, Alex Borrell, and Will Rannells tallied two hits apiece for Lee County; Hall had a game-high three RBI. Landon Miles finished with three runs, and Gavin Swann, Tucker Stephens, Austin Ragan, and Hall had a run each.

Alston Beal earned the save for Lee County, allowing no runs on one hit with a walk and a strikeout in two innings pitched; Swann began the game on the bump for the JV Yellow Jackets and pitched 3 1/3 innings, while Drew Stanfield pitched 1 2/3 innings in relief out of the bullpen.

Maddox Locklear took the loss for the JV Scots, allowing four runs on one hit with two walks and three strikeouts in 1 2/3 innings pitched. Kaden Hunsucker started the game for the JV Scots on the mound, giving up four runs on eight hits with two walks and five strikeouts in 5 1/3 innings pitched.

The JV Scots play against Lumberton at McCoy Field in nonconference action on Wednesday at 5 p.m.