Jackets' rally falls one run short
May 21—Lee County came into Friday's NCHSAA 3A state quarterfinal baseball game at a disadvantage to host Terry Sanford. Just two days prior, the Jackets had burned through both of their top pitchers to knock out top-seeded J.H. Rose in 11 innings.
It almost didn't matter.
Down 5-0 after four innings of play to the All-American Conference champion Bulldogs, the Yellow Jackets mounted a furious rally over the final three innings, culminating in a five-run top of the seventh that left Lee just one run short in an 9-8 loss that ended the team's season.
The Jackets (21-10 overall) had the tying run on base with two out, and Terry Sanford had to summon bullpen stopper Josh Mozingo to get his fourth save of the season in order to hold off Lee, which had battered two other Bulldog relievers for seven hits and seven runs, all earned, over the previous three innings. With Andrew Stanfield on first as the potential tying run, the Jackets' Blake Carlyle worked the count full on Mozingo and then was called out on a third strike to end the game.
Lee trailed 9-4 in the seventh with two on and two out when senior BJ Brown stepped to the plate, and while down to his last strike, crushed a line drive over the left-field fence. Josh Hall and Luke Sheets scored ahead of him to make it 9-7. Also down to a final strike, Will McDuffie doubled off Ethan Nobles and then stole third base with Stanfield at bat. Also on a two-strike count, Stanfield singled to make it 9-8, and compelled Bulldogs head coach Sam Guy to make a pitching change, sending Mozingo into the game.
Terry Sanford (26-5), which had beaten Lee 8-0 on April 22 in a game where the Yellow Jackets let seven unearned runs score, also started the rematch strong. Lee head coach Dalton Hardee entered the game without his ace, Walker McDuffie, and with No. 2 pitcher Blane McDonald limited due to pitch count in the 11-inning win over Rose. He started Andrew Stanfield, but Stanfield didn't have his best stuff and allowed three runs in the first inning. Gavin Swann came in for the second. Swann, a junior who pitches in the old-school submarine style of relievers like Kent Tekulve and Dan Quisenberry, kept the Bulldogs off-balance but fought his control, walking six and hitting a man. In the fourth and sixth innings, his defense let him down and let in a pair of unearned runs. Terry Sanford appeared to have full control of the game when Brent Smith hit a grand slam off Lee's Seth Beal with no one out in the bottom of the sixth. Even though Beal then got out of the inning with no more damage, the Bulldogs led 9-3.
Down 5-0 after four, two big flies had helped Lee get back into the game. The Jackets got on the board when Hall left the yard to center field with one out in the top of the fifth inning. In the top of the sixth, Brown doubled with one out, moved to third on a groundout, and then scored when the catcher threw the ball away, right before Stanfield lifted a ball deep to left for a home run of his own, which cut the deficit to 5-3.
Brown, in his last game for Lee, was never put out, going 3-for-3 with a walk, a double, and a home run for two runs scored and four RBI. Stanfield was 2-for-4 with a home run and two RBI, while Hall was 2-for-3 with a home run and two runs scored. Lee outhit Terry Sanford 10-7.
The game was the final one in the high school careers of Beal, McDuffie, Brown, Camden Henson, Carlyle, and Zachary Williett.
