Jackets clinch top 3A spot in Sandhills
Apr. 23—The week didn't end on the best note for Lee County baseball, as the Yellow Jackets played host to 4A power Leesville Road on Saturday afternoon and got overwhelmed after starting off well.
However, Lee won't need to beat them to accomplish anything in the postseason. They took a big step toward that the previous night.
The Yellow Jackets, who won the 3A portion of the Sandhills Athletic Conference race two years ago, locked it down again Friday night on a road trip to Laurinburg to play Scotland. The Jackets had beaten the Scots here last Tuesday and Wednesday in a game that took two days to complete because of the weather. Friday's rematch took only the one night, and Lee (14-7, 7-3 SAC) took control in the top of the fifth as Scotland unraveled with two walks, two errors, and a wild pitch that led to four Lee County runs and an 8-4 lead. The Fighting Scots (8-8, 5-5) got a run back in their half of the inning, but Jacket pitcher Gavin Swann slammed the door shut over the final two innings for the win.
More importantly, Lee got the help it needed back home in Sanford, when Union Pines beat Southern Lee 9-4 in their second game of the week with each other. The Jackets and Cavaliers will play twice this week to end the regular-season conference slate. This happened a year ago with Southern down by two games in the standings, and the Cavaliers won the SAC 3A by taking both contests. However, the loss to Union Pines means this will not happen again.
Even if Southern sweeps this week, its conference record of 6-6 would not match Lee's 7-5. Both Union Pines and Scotland can still reach 7-5 by sweeping their rivalry series with Pinecrest and Richmond, respectively, but Lee swept both teams and has the head-to-head tiebreaker.
Lee is playing for seeding now. The Jackets are 16th in the NCHSAA 3A East RPI and need to move up to have a realistic chance at any home games past the first round of the playoffs. They faced sixth-ranked Terry Sanford (16-5) in a late Monday game that could help. They visit Southern tonight and host the Cavaliers on Thursday.
The win over Scotland was a tour de force for Jacket senior Walker McDuffie, who didn't pitch in the game but was unstoppable at the plate, going 3-for-3 with three RBI, a run scored and two walks. The Scots never did put him out. He doubled in the first inning for Lee's first run and later scored on a passed ball. Landon Miles' RBI single later that inning scored Andrew Stanfield for a 3-0 lead.
The Scots tied it with three runs in the third. The teams traded runs before Lee's big fifth, in which McDuffie had the lone hit, an RBI single. He had another one in the top of the seventh to drive in Will Rannells with the final run.
On Saturday, the Jackets led 4-1 after two innings against Leesville Road, but the Pride roared over the final five innings and won 21-6. Neither team used its top pitchers in the game, but the visitors swung the hotter bats. BJ Brown, McDuffie, and Blake Carlyle led the Jackets with two hits each.
