Midway takes 3-2 baseball win over Triton, Raiders remain unbeaten

by John Lucas | Mar 19, 2019 | Midway

Cameron Calcutt comes home with the go-ahead run on Thursday night.
(Dunn Area Sports Photo/John Lucas)

Midway edged Triton 3-2 to take a varsity baseball win in a defensive battle on Monday and stay unbeaten on the season.

“It was a good team win,” said Midway coach Jason Fussell. “We made some mistakes tonight. We didn’t swing it as well as we thought we should have. (Triton coach) Joey (Miriello)’s guy out there, the freshman (pitcher Hayden Pope) did a heck of a job keeping us off balance. We made the plays when we had to. We got the run across somehow to make it 3-2.”

Triton coach Joey Miriello was happy with his team’s performance, in spite of the loss.

“I was pleased with what we did tonight overall,” Miriello said. “Really pleased with what we did on the mound. A freshman (Hayden Pope) to come in here, in this atmosphere, and to pitch the way he did against that caliber a team speaks volumes of him. It says what he is capable of doing in the future if he continues to work hard.”

Reliever Cal Tyndall was the winning pitcher for the Raiders (6-0). In one inning, the junior gave up no earned runs on two hits, with one strikeout. Junior Eli Culbreth pitched a perfect seventh inning to record the save, including a game-ending strikeout. Starter Cal Tyndall pitched five innings, yielding one earned run on two hits and three walks, with six strikeouts.

“Our pitching staff’s been great all year and they really bailed us out tonight,” Fussell said. “Especially with some timely defense there in the seventh inning. Cal make a great play in the 5/6 hole for the second out. You can’t ask for much better. And (catcher) Drew (Matthews) in Sawyer’s last inning out there (the fifth) throwing behind a runner at first (for a pick-off) and getting him was a big point in the game that kind of leapfrogged us forward.”

Freshman Hayden Pope went the distance on the mound for the Hawks (4-2), giving up one earned run on three hits and five walks and two hit batters, with five strikeouts.

Sawyer Sutton had one hit and one run scored, Chandler Williford and Cameron Barefoot had one hit apiece, Jaron Register had one RBI and one run scored and Cameron Calcutt had one run scored for Midway.

Dalen Thompson had two hits, Parker Crews had one hit, one RBI and one run scored, Greg Godwin had one hit and one RBI and Ethan Hedgepeth scored once for Triton.

Triton took the initial lead with a run in the top of the second, but Midway answered with two runs in the bottom of the inning to take a 2-1 lead.

In the top of the sixth, Crews drove in Hedgepeth with a base hit to tie the game.

But in the bottom of the sixth, Calcutt scored the go-ahead run for Midway on a sacrifice fly from Register.

Triton opens Tri-County Six 3-A Conference play at defending champion Southern Lee (4-1) on Tuesday.

“We’re sitting 4-2 going into conference play and both of our losses were to, in my opinion, one of the best teams in the state,” Miriello said. “Facing those arms, that’s one of the main reasons we wanted to play them. Nobody in our conference is going to be any better than any of the arms that they put on the mound.”

Midway, the defending conference champion, returns to East Central 2-A Conference play at Sampson County rival Clinton (3-2, 1-0 ECC) on Tuesday.