Cherryville bounces

Post 29 out
By Steve Behr
 
GRANITE FALLS — Caldwell County’s Jon Grey found out that playing baseball at M.S. Deal Stadium has its perks and its downfalls.

With two outs in the ninth inning and with Caldwell down 3-2, Grey blasted a fly ball to the deepest part of the field, which was caught by Cherryville centerfielder Korey Martin. Had Grey pulled the ball, he would have easily knocked it over the leftfield wall and driven in himself and the runner that was on base, which would have given Caldwell a victory. Instead, Martin’s catch closed out a 3-2 Cherryville victory and gave Post 100 a 3-1 series win in the Area IV legion playoffs.

A season that was riddled with injuries and players ducking in and out because of vacations ended for Caldwell County. But, it didn’t end without a fight. Caldwell went into last week missing two starting pitchers — Watauga ace Jon Sharpe to a freak accident not involving baseball that gave him a separated shoulder, and Hibriten ace Bryan Miller, who has a sore pitching shoulder.

“I’ve coached baseball a long time and I’ve never had a year when we didn’t get the breaks like this on the field and had such misfortune off the field,” Caldwell coach Gary Hamby said. “We’ve battled through things that would have made other teams fold. If we had gotten some breaks, we could have won a state championship.”

However, Adam Benfield turned in a standout performance for Caldwell, pitching nine innings and allowing three runs, all that were earned by the fifth inning. Benfield allowed just four hits, but walked three batters.

Two of those walks scored runs.

Benfield gave up two runs in the first inning on a fielder’s choice by Trey Drewery and an RBI double by Drew Reynolds.

Martin added an RBI triple in the fifth. After giving up a lead-off walk in the sixth, Benfield did not allow a base runner the rest of the game, retiring the final 12 batters he faced.

Gray took advantage of the huge outfield in the middle of M.S. Deal and drove in a run with a triple in the second inning. Joel Woods drove in Caldwell’s other run in the fourth inning with a single, but was the victim of one of two Cherryville double plays.

Aaron Bentley went the distance on the mound for Cherryville, striking out four, allowing seven hits and walking one. Bentley benefited from two breaks, getting one when a Grey foul ball in the seventh inning went over the left-field fence, and a foul ball hit by Trent Reynolds reached the deep right-field wall.

“We had three tonight,” Hamby said. “Jon hit two that would have been out at Cherryville.”