Raiders advance on diamonds

by John Lucas | May 10, 2018 | Midway

The ‘W’ flag as flying at the baseball field after Midway topped Bertie, 6-5. (Dunn Area Sports Photo/John Lucas)

Sawyer Sutton was the winning pitcher in Midway’s baseball victory over Bertie. (Dunn Area Sports Photo/John Lucas)

Midway’s Laura Person brings a run home with a bunt on Wednesday night. (Dunn Area Sports Photo/John Lucas)

Midway’s baseball and softball teams both advanced to the second round of the NCHSAA 2-A state
playoffs with wins at home in the first round Wednesday.

“Our bats have been hot the past few games,” said Midway softball coach Leigh Ann Smith. “We didn’t
score as well tonight as I felt like we should have. We’ve just been able to string some things together
since Greenville. I changed the lineup a little bit at Greenville (a tournament at D.H. Conley March 30
and 31) and that has paid off for us scoring runs. Solid defense and hitting the ball well have been our
keys.”

A strong defensive performance led No. 8 Midway to a 3-0 win over No. 25 Ayden-Grifton.

The win extracts a bit of revenge for Midway, which was knocked out of this year’s volleyball playoffs by
Ayden-Grifton. Several members of Midway’s softball team were also members of the volleyball team.

Freshman Miranda Holmes pitched the complete game shutout for the Raiders (17-5), yielding no runs
on three hits and three walks, with two strikeouts.

J.J. Sankey had two hits and one run scored. Hannah Lucas had one hit and one RBI. Leah Williams and
Alyssa Wrench each had one hit and one run scored. Erin Barefoot had one hit. Laura Person had one
RBI.

Taylor Bowen had two hits and Macee Dunford had one hit for the Chargers (13-8).

Midway hosts No. 9 Richlands (17-8), which edged Randleman 4-3 in the first round, in the second round
of the playoffs on Friday at 6:30 p.m.

On the baseball field, No. 6 Midway edged visiting No. 27 Bertie 6-5 in a back-and-forth battle.

“We’ve got a young team,” said Midway baseball coach Jason Fussell. “I told the kids that it doesn’t
matter if you’re a top seed or a low seed. If you give a team an inch at any moment in any given game,
they’re going to get momentum on you. And that’s what we did. We started off hot, we gave them
momentum and that made us hurt for a while. We had to string one out to win the game.”

Freshman starter Sawyer Sutton was the winning pitcher for the Raiders (17-5). In five innings, he gave
up three earned runs on five hits and five walks, with seven strikeouts. Chandler Williford pitched two
innings, yielding no runs on no hits and no walks, with three strikeouts.

Senior Austin Peterson led Midway at the plate with two hits, including a double, and two RBIs. and two
RBIs.

Drew Matthews had two hits. Cal Tyndall had one hit and one RBI. Jaron Register and Cameron Barefoot
each had one hit and one run scored. Williford, Brayden Coats, Colby Pope and Carson Calcutt had one
hit apiece.

Midway took the early lead by scoring three runs in the bottom of the first inning.

A big five-run third inning put the Falcons (11-14) ahead 5-3, but Midway answered with a run in the
bottom of the third and two in the fourth to take the lead for good.

Midway is at home against No. 22 Roanoke Rapids (14-9) in the second round on Friday at 7 p.m. The Yellow Jackets are coming in hot after upsetting No. 11 Bunn on the road Tuesday.