Two Wilmington High Schools Advance In State Baseball Tourney

Hoggard 12 - Northern Durham 3

Things looked sketchy early on for Hoggard in their first round playoff match-up with Northern Durham, but a 3-2 deficit, became a 3-3 tie in the bottom of the second, and from there, the onslaught was on.

With runners on the corners, trailing 3-2 in the bottom of the second, Hoggard’s Luke Caldwell stole second and when the throw went into center field, Mark Crecco came in from third.

Adam Hunnicutt, left, was in a bit of trouble on the mound in the early innings and Hoggard’s defense was shaky, but a 1-6-3 double play in the third seemed to be the game turning play.

As Hunnicutt began to settle down, the Hoggard bats began to heat up. In the bottom of the fourth, the Vikings sent 12 batters to the plate and scored seven runs on seven hits. Dan MacDonald had two hits in the inning including the crushing blow, a single with the bases juiced, that was misplayed by Northern Durham and wound up clearing the sacks.

Hunnicutt set Northern down 1-2-3 in the top of the fifth and the Vikings added two more runs on RBI’s from David Coleman and Scott Johnson in the bottom of the inning.

With the score 12-3 in the seventh, Will Holland came in to finish of the game on the hill for Hoggard who will next play at home on Tuesday.

Hoggard Skipper Jeep St. Ledger said he told his team they needed to hit line drives and he reported, “They kept to what we practiced.”

Hunnicutt, who is now 6-0, said “I was little nervous in the first, but the offense was a big help. You don’t get nervous when you have 12 runs on the board. Everybody was in the game tonight; sometimes if we’re soft, the coaches will tell us to ‘get it up’ in the dugout.” On Friday, that wasn’t a problem as the Vikings had momentum on their side from the bottom of the second, on.

Other Scores

Ashley 2 - Smithfield-Selma 1

Fuquay-Varina 5 - Laney 0

-- Jesse Jones, CAPE FEAR SPORTS REPORT