FAIRMONT —The Scotland baseball team fell to the Purnell Swett Rams by a score of 3-2 in the fifth-place game of the Robeson County Slugfest on Tuesday afternoon at Fairmont High School. The Scots fell in Saturday’s tournament opener to Red Springs before rallying for a 5-3 win over Lumberton on Monday morning.
This was Scotland’s second loss to Purnell Swett this season, having also dropped a 5-0 contest to the Rams at McCoy Field back on Feb. 27. The Scots’ season record is now 12-10 after the tournament results.
The Rams got one run each in the bottom of the third, fourth and fifth innings while the Scots got both of their runs in the top of the sixth frame. The Rams outhit Scotland 5-3 while both teams committed one error over the course of the contest.
Robbie Peed led the Scots in hits with a 2-3 afternoon at the plate and scored a run while Garrett Manning, who was named to the all-tournament team, had the team’s other hit in a 1-2 effort with an RBI and a run scored. Dylan Tilson had Scotland’s other RBI.
Tilson was the team’s starting pitcher and went five innings on the mound while allowing three runs (two earned) and striking out seven Purnell Swett batters (against two walks). Peed pitched one clean inning in relief and had two strikeouts. Tilson threw 92 pitches (53 strikes) to the 23 batters he faced while Peed threw 19 pitches (12 strikes) to four batters.
This contest was the Scots’ last before the conference tournament takes place next week. With four more games still to be played elsewhere in the conference (Pinecrest/Union Pines twice and Southern Lee/Lee County twice) this week, Scotland’s opponent for the tournament opener is not known at the time of this writing. Scotland went 7-5 in conference play this season and sits in the fourth spot of the standings as of now.