No. 5 Scots wipe out No. 6 Union Pines in SAC consolation tourney semifinals

LAURINBURG — Coming into their Sandhills Athletic Conference consolation tournament contest Wednesday night on a four-game win streak, the No. 5 Scotland baseball team (15-7, 6-6 Sandhills Athletic Conference) looked for their first win of the season against the No. 6 Union Pines Vikings (12-13, 6-6 SAC) after being swept by them in the regular-season — which the Scots did with ease.

A scoreless showing by the Vikings would lead to a 5-0 win for the Scots and a shot at the SAC consolation tournament championship Thursday night against No. 4 Richmond, after the Raiders defeated No. 7 Hoke County 6-5 Wednesday night in the other SAC consolation tournament game.

“It’s hard to beat a team three times, that’s what I told our kids,” Schattauer said. “That’s a good ball team over there but we did play tremendous defense and pitching.”

On Monday, it was announced that Schattauer would be relieved of his head coaching duties at the end of the season. The news led to the team rallying together for Schattauer though, which has helped motivate the Scots.

“The past couple days have been rough cause of what’s happened,” Scotland’s Blane Wagner said. “But we went into a mentality this game, not playing for Scotland really, but playing for our coach because we know we have something to prove. We lost our seniors from last year but we know we’re not done, the job’s not finished. So going into this game, we just wanted to be the best we could.”

Wagner’s performance was an example of the Scots playing at their best as he finished the game 1-for-2 at the plate, scored two runs, and made three difficult grabs at third base for a trio of Union Pines outs. Wagner was the first Scot to plate a run after an error by the Vikings allowed him to score from second in the second inning; Jake Clemmons also added a run to make the Scots lead 2-0.

But the Scots didn’t score another run until the sixth inning, when they scored their last three runs of the game.

“I think we know as a team now that no amount of runs is safe,” Schattauer said. “I think the year, the ups-and-downs we’ve had throughout the year…being at Union Pines and being up 6-4 in the last inning and them coming back and beating us, we’ve been on both sides.”

Garrett Manning and Wagner each scored on an Eli McCoy RBI single in the sixth, and Turner Bounds was brought home after Luke Taylor was walked with the bases loaded for the Scots’ final run of the night.

Dawson Williams and McCoy led the Scots in hits with two each, while Alex Hatcher, Wagner, and Clemmons all had one; McCoy finished with a team-high two RBI and Williams and Taylor each had one.

Dylan Tilson pitched a complete game for the Scots, allowing five hits with three strikeouts, picking up the win.

Ryan Wallace took the loss for the Vikings, allowing five earned runs on seven hits with four walks and three strikeouts in 5 1/3 innings pitched; Grey Withrow pitched 2/3 of an inning in relief.

Mayson Dear, Hunter Meeds, Jacob Williams, Chandler Ring, and Withrow each accumulated a hit for Union Pines.

Over the last five games played, the Scots have notched 22 runs but have hit at just a .243 clip, which is down from their season average of .270.

Defense and pitching have been a different story though, as the Scots have allowed only eight runs throughout the span and have limited their opponents to a .201 batting average.

“I think we are getting hot when it’s the right time of year,” Scotland head coach Ricky Schattauer said. “I know teams, their wins come in waves; we started off hot, then, we kind of cooled off in the middle of the year and we had our stretch of ups-and-downs. We’re probably playing the best ball we have all year right now.”

The SAC consolation tournament championship between the No. 5 Scots and the No. 4 Raiders will be Thursday night at 6 p.m. in Rockingham.