Scotland baseball, girls soccer lose at home to Southern Lee, Union Pines

LAURINBURG —The Scotland baseball team was defeated by the visiting Southern Lee Cavaliers in a 6-3 final from McCoy Field on Tuesday night. The Scots see their three-game winning streak come to an end as they fall to 4-2 (2-1 in conference games) on the season with the loss while Southern Lee improves to 5-1 (2-1 against conference opponents) with their third straight victory.

After a scoreless first inning, the Cavaliers got the game’s first run in the top of the second as Spencer Stephens would reach base safely on a dropped third strike and then score on an RBI double from Cole Faulk. They would then add to their lead in a major way during the top of the third, scoring four runs on four hits, a walk and a steal of home by Stephens to balloon their advantage up to 5-0. All of the damage occurred with two outs recorded.

Bryan McCollum would get on base during the top of the fifth with a double and advance to third on an infield single by Michael Blanks. McCollum would then score on a wild pitch to give the Cavaliers a 6-0 lead.

The Scots would respond in their half of the fifth with Connor Sessoms starting the inning off with a single on a ball hit to the pitcher. Bryson McCarter then came in to run for Sessoms and stole second before scoring on an RBI single from Kaden Hunsucker. Robbie Peed and Blane Callahan would also add RBI singles to trim Southern Lee’s lead down to 6-3.

Head Coach Ricky Schattauer didn’t like how long it took for Scotland’s offense to get runs across. The Scots had runners in scoring position during each of the first four innings but didn’t get anyone home, which didn’t sit well with Schattauer.

“We put ourself in a situation to answer back,” Schattauer said. “We waited too late to score, we just didn’t get the clutch hit. That’s timely hitting, we are not doing that right now.”

Jayden Bryant and Garrett Manning would have a single in the bottom of the sixth and seventh innings respectively but Scotland wouldn’t score any more runs. The Scots outhit the Cavaliers 9-8, though eight of Scotland’s nine hits were singles with the lone exception being a double from Maddox Locklear in the bottom of the fourth.

While singles are still valuable, Schattauer wants to see more extra base hits because of how it doesn’t require taking the risk of stealing bases to get to second and third. Scotland stole nine bases but also had a runner caught once in Tuesday’s contest.

“We’re only getting singles, we’re not hitting very many doubles,” Schattauer said. “We’re having to run, we’re going to have to live and die with guys getting thrown out because we have to find a way to get them to second base and third base.”

Hunsucker and Callahan both went 2-4 from the plate with an RBI to lead the Scots offensively. No other Scot had more than one hit.

Dylan Tilson started the game for Scotland on the mound and pitched six innings while allowing six runs (five earned). Tilson had seven strikeouts compared to four walks. Peed came in for the seventh inning and had two strikeouts while not allowing any runs.

The Scots will get another shot at the Cavaliers when they travel to Southern Lee on Friday night. The game is scheduled to start at 7 p.m. Being better on offense is Schattauer’s biggest focus heading into Friday night’s rematch.

“We have to get up there and offensively stop being discouraged,” Schattauer said. “We’re pressing too much, I put a lot on the offense because our pitching has been great.”

The team will be back at home on Saturday afternoon when they welcome the Sanderson Spartans to McCoy Field. First pitch is scheduled for 2 p.m. that day.

Girls soccer crushed by Union Pines

The Scots were defeated during their home opener on Tuesday night by a score of 14-0. Scotland falls to 0-3 (0-3 in conference games) on the season with the loss while the Vikings improve to 5-1-1 (2-0 against conference opponents) with the victory. The game was stopped after the first half.

Despite the lopsided final, Head Coach Jeremy White sees some promise in the future. He believes that a lot of the mistakes are able to be fixed but will only come with practice and experience, mentioning that without the benefit of non-conference games the team has to work on perfecting their craft over the first half of the season.

“Mistakes that we made are fixable mistakes,” White said. “We have to communicate more, get better touches on the ball and put better pressure in the middle of the field.”

Union Pines got their first two goals within a 27 second span, the first being with 37:17 left in the half. The Vikings would have five goals by the 29:53 mark and be up 10-0 with 16 minutes left.

White gave a lot of praise to the Vikings after the game. Many of the Union Pines girls play local club soccer, which certainly gives them an advantage during the high school season.

“Union Pines is a great school,” White said. “Those Moore County schools have an AAU club ball team in their county, a lot of these girls play on that team in their offseason and it shows with their performance out here. Still proud of my team.”

The Scots will have a week to regroup before hosting Pinecrest (currently 6-2 overall and 2-0 in conference games) on Tuesday night. The game will start at 6 p.m.

“We’re going to work on our formation and make sure we understand each individual’s role in the formation we run,” White said. “We’re going to work on communication and getting passes off. We’ll watch film of this game and pick up on some mistakes we made, put in three or four good days of work.”