Sessoms’ walk-off hit leads Scotland past Southern Lee in extra innings

LAURINBURG — When two top pitchers in a conference match up against each other, hits and runs are likely to come at a premium.

While that was the case Thursday in Scotland and Southern Lee’s game on the diamond, which saw 11 total hits, it didn’t come without a thrilling ending.

After going to extra innings with a 2-2 score and Southern Lee unable to score a runner at second in the top of the eighth, the Fighting Scots got their second consecutive opportunity to walk it off — and did just that.

With Maddox Locklear on second, Connor Sessoms stepped up to the plate and laced the ball deep to left field on a 1-2 pitch, bringing in Locklear for the game-winning run and sending Scotland off with a 3-2 win.

“I was struggling all night, so I was just trying to do my job,” Sessoms, who finished 1-for-4 at the plate, said postgame. “I hadn’t done it all night, so I was just trying to help out the team. I was just trying to wait back, get my pitch. I thought he (Cavs pitcher Christian Cox) would throw a curveball because he had just threw one first strike. So, I was sitting back on it and trying to drive it.”

Scotland (5-1, 4-0 Sandhills Athletic Conference) and Southern Lee (2-6, 1-3 SAC) each played its aces on the bump, with Dylan Tilson starting for the Scots and Liberty University commit Cooper Harrington tossing first for the Cavaliers.

Tilson threw for seven innings, allowing one earned run on five hits with five strikeouts and three walks.

“Tilson did a phenomenal job,” Scotland coach Ricky Schattauer said. “We’ve harped all winter about not showing your emotions, keeping your emotions to yourself, not letting the other team that’s going to get in your head — all they’re trying to do is get you off your game. And that was one thing he did as a sophomore; he showed his emotions. And he did a phenomenal job tonight.”

“I wish they didn’t get those two runs that they got, but I’m fine with holding them to two runs,” Tilson said.

Harrington gave up one earned run on three hits with 11 strikeouts to only one walk across 7 1/3 innings.

Tilson and Harrington reached the 105 maximum pitches allowed and had to be relieved after regulation. But with both players relatively fresh in the beginning stages, Tilson went up to bat with Harrington in the middle; with a full count, Tilson hit a line-drive triple to right field before making it a 1-0 Scotland lead on a passed ball in the second.

“It was good to go ahead against somebody’s ace that they wanted to put out there that’s a Division I arm,” Schattauer said. “And for us to scratch first, I guess, made our guys relax and say this guy is human. He’s not any better than us. He still has to throw it across the plate.”

The Cavs leveled it at 1-1 in the third with a Cooper Moss fly ball that sent home Cameron Richey from third. But with Tilson getting his second at-bat for the Scots in the fourth, he put the ball in play and reached first on an error by Cox at second; the play allowed Garrett Sellers to score from second despite Tilson not getting credit for an RBI, which put Scotland ahead again 2-1.

“First pitch, curveball he (Harrington) threw to me my second at-bat, seen it all the way in,” Tilson said. “I wasn’t going to swing at a first-pitch curveball, so I watched it. Then he tried to get ahead of another one.”

The game-tying score for the Cavs happened in the fifth after Michael Blanks reached first on shortstop Garrett Manning’s error; Moss followed Blanks in the order and hit a ground ball, reaching first on another error from Manning, which helped Blanks run across home plate.

Before Sessoms’ winning hit in the eighth, Scotland had a chance to win in the seventh with runners on first and second. But a ground ball hit by Cameron Cole resulted in the third out of the inning, sending the Scots down.

“I think we’re going to hit a learning curve eventually,” Schattauer said. “It’s going to come, but so far our learning curve has been coming back in late in the games down by one run or a lot of runs. And we have not got out of the game. We’ve been resilient, and I think it showed off tonight going into extra innings.”

Logan Adner finished with two of Scotland’s five hits; Locklear and Tilson had one, joining Sessoms. Robbie Peed earned the win for Scotland, pitching the scoreless eighth.

Moss had three hits for Southern Lee; Caleb Waters, T.J. McAuley and Blanks had one. Cox suffered the loss in just a 1/3 inning of work after allowing the knocks by Locklear and Sessoms in the eighth.

Scotland plays a home-and-home against Union Pines next week, with the first game at McCoy Field on Tuesday; the teams play in Cameron on Friday, March 22.