Roundup: Scotland baseball stumbles against Western Harnett, takes first loss

LAURINBURG — The record of the Scotland Fighting Scots baseball team had yet to be blemished before Thursday — and looked as if it’d stay that way until Friday, with Wednesday’s game at Overhills washed out.

But Thursday morning, the Western Harnett Eagles were added to Scotland’s schedule for that same day to replace the canceled contest and traveled to McCoy Field later that afternoon. And by the 10 o’clock hour, the Eagles were heading back north with a 4-2 nonconference win against the Scots.

“I think it’s been small steps forward and a big step backward tonight,” Scotland coach Ricky Schattauer said. “They (the Eagles) only had three hits. I think we gave up eight walks. But we also struck out eight times … off of a fastball and a curveball, which is not very good going into a conference play outside of Hoke.”

In addition to the stats Schattauer mentioned, Scotland (2-1) had 11 stolen bases but only the two runs to show for them. The Scots also had issues throwing the ball, which included three errors by shortstop Dawson Williams, who was moved to the outfield by Schattauer mid-game while Garrett Manning took over at shortstop.

”Dawson just had a hard time of gripping it, whatever the excuse was, to throw it to first base,” Schattauer said. “I think it really came down to the first one making an error, and he was in his head after that. I think he forced the next one, didn’t go his way, and then he tried to force the next one and it didn’t go his way. So we had to make a little change there, and hopefully, filled it after that.”

Williams had an error on the first hit of the game by Western Harnett’s Jackson Rosser in the first inning. But no harm was done the rest of the inning, with three consecutive outs coming afterward.

In the second, though, Williams had his second error, which led to Ethan Mazurowski reaching first base and eventually giving the Eagles (2-3) their first run. Coincidentally, Scotland’s Garrett Sellers evened the score in the bottom of the inning after trotting home on an error by Western Harnett catcher Brayden Schaefer.

In the fourth, Williams’ third error allowed Lawton Hickman to reach first; J.J. Moore came in to pinch run for Hickman but was picked off at third. However, after the bases became loaded, Mazurowski was advanced home on a walk to give the Eagles the lead back at 2-1; at the next at-bat, Pace Holder ran in from third on a passed ball, and Rosser’s hit brought in Tristan Giddens from third for a 4-1 score.

After making several errors, Williams scored Scotland’s second run on one in the fifth. But with an opportunity to take the lead with runners in scoring position, Scotland’s Thomas Taylor grounded out to end the inning. Maddox Locklear, who finished with three of Scotland’s six hits, did make it to third in the seventh, but the game was finalized after Manning’s pop up was caught for the third out.

“I bragged on Maddox,” Schattauer said. “He’s constantly coming out here. And asking, ‘Coach, can I hit in the cage,’ and it pays off. His highs and his lows are going to come, hopefully no time soon, but he had … three hits. We had a total of six hits. He had five stolen bases. So, it pays off when you get on base. I told them we can do good things when we get on base. We just can’t strike out eight times.”

Brady Fowler suffered the loss for Scotland, allowing two earned runs on one hit with four strikeouts and three walks in 3 1/3 innings; Sellers and Robbie Peed pitched in relief.

Rosser and Giddens had one hit and one RBI apiece for the Eagles; Hickman was the winning pitcher, going for 4 1/3 innings and giving up one earned run on four hits with five strikeouts and four walks.

Scotland remains home on Friday as Hoke County comes to town; it’ll be a rematch of Tuesday’s game in Raeford, when Scotland won 11-1.

Lee County’s offensive explosion too much for Lady Scots soccer in SAC opener

A promising start for the Scotland women’s soccer team took a blow Thursday night when the Lee County Yellow Jackets came to Laurinburg, unleashing an offensive frenzy that caused the game to end at halftime.

The Yellow Jackets scored five goals in the first 15 minutes of play and netted five more to claim a 10-1 victory in the opening Sandhills Athletic Conference game for both teams.

“I think our main thing that happened to us tonight was our attitudes,” Scotland coach Jordan Stone said. “We came out on the field, and I think we just put on that Scotland mentality of we always lose. And that’s exactly how we played. We had some good points, though. Our positioning was pretty good. We had a couple of good passes. We had a goal. But tonight just wasn’t our night.”

Gillian Garrison had a glut after scoring five goals for Lee County (3-2, 1-0 SAC); Lila Moshfegh had a hat trick with three goals and Ava Baldwin and Abigail Sanchez scored one goal each.

Emma Clark had the only goal for Scotland (2-2, 0-1 SAC) in the 27th minute after finding the top right corner of the net from about 20 yards away; goalkeeper Addison Anderson had nine saves.

“We talked to the girls, and we just weren’t all there mentally, just wasn’t more physical than anything,” Stone said. “But just trying to make them focus on that, they’re supposed to have fun and come out here and play. But it’s a game of mentality, too, that we’ve got to focus. We’ve got to be here ready to play. You’ve got to compete. That’s all I wanted from them tonight was to compete. We couldn’t get that competitive edge in us tonight.”

After playing three games in four days, Scotland will get a three-day break before playing at South Columbus in a nonconference game on Monday, which will also begin another week of three contests.

“It’s definitely challenging, especially trying to get in some practices and get in things that we may need to work on, but we’re ready,” Stone said. “And hopefully, this break will give us some time. We have some players injured, some players hurt and sick, so we’re trying to get everybody 100 percent and be ready for Monday.”