HAYS — The Surry Central softball team did things a bit backwards in its 4-3 win over North Wilkes Wednesday night, but the team held on for the victory.

Golden Eagle coach Glen Craddock said his team had trouble adjusting to the 45 mph pitching of North Wilkes after the girls were hitting against 60 mph pitching in an Easter tournament last weekend.

Instead of adjusting over the course of the game, the Eagles devolved after a scorching start.

“Well it was good to come out hitting the ball like we did, but it seems like after the first inning the wheels fell off the wagon,” Craddock said.

Laken Weaver started the game with a hit and the number two and three hitters followed suit. After a couple of fielders’ choices mixed in with more hits, the Eagles came out 3-0 before North Wilkes had a chance to touch the chalk in the batter’s box.

But after that first inning, the second, third and fourth innings went one-two-three for Surry Central.

Jessica Creed’s pitching made those three runs, with one more added in the sixth, stand up with no problem until the seventh inning.

The score was 4-1 in the bottom of the seventh and North Wilkes decided to make the game interesting with two runs on three hits.

Creed took it all in stride and did what she had been doing all game, inducing a groundout with two runners in scoring position to put the game away for the Eagles.

“Having Jess on the mound gives us a lot of confidence to know that she’s not going to walk anybody and challenge the batter,” Craddock said. “They are either going to have to hit it or strike out.”

Laken Weaver and Kristen Gardner were bright spots offensively for the Eagles with Weaver going 2-3 with a hit by pitch and Gardner recording two of the RBIs in the three-run first inning.

Surry Central will travel to Mount Airy Friday night to play at 5 p.m.

Surry Central 4, North Wilkes 3

SC: 3 0 0 0 0 1 0 -4

NW: 0 0 1 0 0 0 2 -3

WP: Jessica Creed

LP: Elladae

3B — SC: Karie McLamb

East Surry wins a close one against Bandys

PILOT MOUNTAIN — East Surry took advantage of a miscue and a wild throw in the bottom of the seventh to pull out a 2-1 win over Bandys Wednesday in softball action.

With the score tied 1-1, East’s Julie Bullington led off the seventh inning with a bloop single to left center and was replaced by courtesy runner Sarah Scott, who promptly moved to second on a Bandys’ passed ball.

With one out, Christian Smith struck out. However, the Bandys catcher dropped the ball and as no player was at first to cover the bag, Scott moved towards third. After the throw to first finally was made, the Bandys first baseman opted to try and put Scott out but made a bad throw to third, which allowed Scott to slip home and end the game.

After a dismal trip to Greenville over the weekend and a loss to Starmount Tuesday, East Surry coach Derrick Hill was just happy to get a win.

“I thought we were in pretty good shape,” Hill said. “We’ve been struggling to score early and at this point we needed to beat somebody, but it wasn’t a pretty game by any means. But a win, is a win, is a win. It’s better than getting beat 2-1.

Hill has said he is in favor of a juggled lineup in a search of some way to jump start the Cardinals bats.

“We have obviously struggled the last four or five games and we struggled offensively again today,” he said. “We are still doing some of the same things we’ve been griping at them about the past two weeks. In my opinion we had better at bats against Starmount last night and that’s disturbing because we spent a lot of time today working on hitting. I’m to the point where I am running out of answers. Hopefully we can build on today, but we still don’t know who is going to be playing were from day-to-day.”

Christian Smith finished 1-for-3 with a double and an RBI to lead East Surry at the plate, while Hayley Shelton picked up the win on the mound.

East Surry moves to 7-5 overall and will play at South Stokes Friday.

East Surry 2, Bandys 1

B — 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 — 1 4 2

ES — 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 — 2 5 1

WP: Hayley Shelton

LP: Taylor Sigmon

2B: ES — Christian Smith

Mount Airy tennis loses to Forsyth County Day

WINSTON-SALEM — After a couple of steady weeks with win after win, the Mount Airy tennis team finally dropped a match to Forsyth Country Day Wednesday evening.

“The team fought hard in a loss, but I think they proved to themselves that they can hang with good quality teams,” Mount Airy coach Scott John said.

Brooks Mayberry notched the only singles win for the Granite Bears at the No. 4 spot beating Drew Ross in a close first match 7-5, then blowing Ross away 6-0 in the second match.

Nick John and Taylor Bobbitt also played some tough matches to 7-5 scores, but could not get over the hump for a win.

Mount Airy’s doubles team of Matt Kessler and Eric Belton garnered the Bear’s second victory of the night with an 8-5 win.

John said the match exposed some weaknesses that the team needs to work on, but he was particularly pleased with the way the doubles teams are looking.

“It’s a good sign as we approach the playoffs,” he said.

Mount Airy beat West Stokes 8-1 Tuesday evening.

“Our team performed nicely against second place West Stokes,” John said. “Our top four guys are playing well and hopefully they can keep up the momentum.”

Forsyth Country Day 7, Mount Airy 2

SINGLES

Josh Swindler (FCD) d. Nick John 7-5, 6-1; Bradley Schneider (FCD) d. Matt Kessler 6-1, 6-2; Tom Hill (FCD) d. Eric Belton (MA) 6-4, 6-0; Brooks Mayberry (MA) d. Drew Ross (FCD) 7-5, 6-0; Peter Sodosky (FCD) d. Jordan Lawson (MA) 6-2, 6-2; Tre Vaughn (FCD) d. Taylor Bobbitt (MA) 7-5, 6-2

DOUBLES

Swindler/Schneider (FCD) d. John/Mayberry (MA) 8-4; Kessler/Belton (MA) d. Hill/Vaughn (FCD) 8-5; Ross/Sodosky (FCD) d. Lawson/Bobbitt (MA) 8-3