DOBSON —Luke Harris didn’t have all the command he needed on the mound Tuesday night in Surry Central’s state playoff game against Owen High School, but he more than made up for it with his command at the plate.

The Golden Eagles beat the Warhorses 3-2 in large part to Harris’ three doubles.

Harris started the game on the mound. He gave up one run in the first inning off a walk and a couple of singles from the Warhorses. In the second, he gave up one more run after a single, a sacrifice fly and another single.

It was 2-0, and Surry Central head coach Matt Scott decided to put in Austin McLamb.

“We feel like our pitchers are good enough to keep us in ball games, but Austin is a special kid,” Scott said. “We feel like if we have a close ball game we’re going to have a shot at the end of the game.”

McLamb came in and shut down Owen by inducing a double play to get the Eagles out of the inning.

The very next inning, Harris blasted a double to deep right center field. He then advanced to third on a passed ball. Ethan Wilmoth walked, making it first and third with one out. Alex Wilmoth grounded a ball in the infield that looked like perfect double play material, but Ethan slid hard and Alex beat the throw out at first while Harris scored on the play.

Scott said he was impressed with the way Harris kept his focus after being taken off the mound.

“Luke kept his head up, he didn’t complain,” he said. “Just like he’s done all year, he’s battled through adversity and has a huge night.

“We don’t win tonight without Luke Harris.”

Surry Central scored again in the bottom of the fourth inning off a Luke Harris RBI that scored Tanner Hudson to tie the ballgame.

The Golden Eagles took advantage of what Scott called lackadaisical play from the Warhorses all night, advancing bases when they saw a chance. Catcher Austin Stevens provided a spark on defense, picking off two runners from third to stop Owen rallies.

“Austin Stevens does not care about the atmosphere, he does not care about the setting, he just knows how to play baseball, and he does it the right away, and we’re tickled to death he’s playing for us the next three years,” Scott said about his freshman catcher.

McLamb took care of the rest on the mound for the Eagles, not giving up a run while striking out five.

Surry Central will play Bunker Hill away Friday night at 7 p.m. Bunker Hill is 29-0, so Scot said he knows his team will have to come prepared and focused.

“It’s just a remarkable, special group of kids, our coaching staff loves being around,” Scott said of his team. “Our focus now is the same as it has been all year - play hard and have fun, and we’ll take the results.”

Surry Central 3, Owen High School 2

O: 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 -2 6 2

SC: 0 1 0 1 1 0 X - 3 7 0

WP: Austin McLamb

LP: J.D. Chaplain

2b — SC: Luke Harris (3), Ethan Wilmoth

East Surry baseball loses

PILOT MOUNTAIN — After winning 19 of its last 20 games, it seemed the only way the East Surry baseball team could lose was to beat itself.

Tuesday that came to pass, as the Cardinals committed five costly errors which allowed Bessemer City to end their season with a 4-1 loss.

“We played solid defense all year long, especially here lately,” East Surry coach Barry Hall said. “We’d been playing well and uncharacteristically we tightened up in some key situations and made some errors early and they took advantage and put us in a hole pretty quickly.”

While the Cardinals were busy figuring out their fielding woes, Bessemer City pitcher Seth Weekly was putting forth his best effort to fluster the East Surry lineup.

East chased curveball after curveball and stood stoic on belt high fastballs when the opportunity arose.

While Weekly kept the Cardinals off balance, East did have a chance to wipe the slate clean in the bottom of the fourth with a bases loaded rally which produced their only run of the game.

Andrew Hunter led off the inning with an infield single, then stole second. Austin Tilley then drew a walk from Weekly and Troy Jessup beat out a throw from third base to load the bases with no outs after the Bessemer City fielder booted the ball.

Weekly struck out the next batter, but East’s Jordan Miller kept things alive when he cranked an RBI single to left to plate Hunter and pull the score to 3-1.

The Cardinal dugout and faithful were whipped to a frenzy, but the shaky demeanor Weekly showed while loading the bases all but disappeared while clearing them, as he promptly struck out the next two East Surry batters to escape from a dangerous Cardinal scoring opportunity.

Hall gave credit to Weekly for his performance, but said his team did not react well to what the Bessemer City pitcher had to offer.

On the night, Weekly went seven innings, struck out 12, walked three and gave up one run on three hits.

“He kept us off balance and we helped him out by not having good approaches at the plate,” Hall said. “One of the things we pride ourselves in is hitting the fastball, but we took too many fastballs early and swung at too many curves outside the strike zone. In late innings you’re trying to work the count to get baserunners but in the first four or five innings we had some bad times at bat that ended up costing us.”

After going on such a tear to end the season, Hall said he did not think the long stretch without a loss hurt his team.

“I thought we were carrying great momentum into the playoffs,” he said. “Our kids knew what we had to do to continue that streak, the Weekly kid just shut us down tonight. We had one opportunity to overcome our mistakes but we let it slide away from us — but that’s the game of baseball. You don’t dwell on this one. I told the kids, ‘You’re 23-5 and that’s what you remember. Remember what you’ve done during the season because you’ve had a great year.’”

Bessemer City 4, East Surry 1

BC — 2 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 — 4 7 1

ES — 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 — 1 3 5

WP: Seth Weekly

LP: Troy Jessup

2B — BC: Clayton Johnson

East Surry softball blows out North Wilkes

PILOT MOUNTAIN — East Surry is headed to the second round of the NCHSAA 1A softball tournament after a 10-0 win over North Wilkes Tuesday.

The Cardinals scored all 10 of their runs in the first two innings, including eight in an offense-filled bottom half of the second.

East Surry pitcher Hayley Shelton struck out five of six batters she faced and combined with Paula Kiser and Jessica Barker for a one-hit shutout of the Vikings.

After scoring two in the first, the second inning began with East’s Christian Smith leading off with a walk. Jessica Barker then tried to sacrifice bunt Smith to second but an errant throw by North Wilkes allowed Smith to move to third and Barker to make it safely to first.

After Barker stole second, freshman Kristen Cummings took a full-count pitch deep to left for a three-run homer.

East coach Derrick Hill said Cummings, who has been juggled between varsity and junior varsity most of the season, showed why she was in the lineup in a state playoff game as a freshman.

“We saw early that she had some pop in her bat and we need someone with that,” Hill said. “She’s done a good job. She puts it in play and hits it hard.”

Sam Smith restarted the second inning rally with a double to right and Hayley Shelton then picked up her second RBI single of the game to score Smith.

Morgan Chilton quickly followed that up with a two-run homerun to all but put the game out of reach.

Beth Isaacs then added a double, Julie Bullington walked and Isaacs advanced home after Kelsey Wilson hit a bullet back to the North Wilkes pitcher.

Throw in another Christian Smith walk, a Jessica Barker RBI triple, and the kitchen sink and that’s how the Cardinals put away North Wilkes.

While the Cardinals will certainly have to win tougher games down the road if they hope to defend their 1A state title, Hill said Tuesday was a good way to get a lot of experience for players who haven’t been in the playoffs before.

“I think it’s a good way to get our feet wet, especially for these young kids,” he said. “The older kids know what to expect. They’ve all done it and some have done it twice and I think the older kids understand what it takes to win the whole thing and to be successful in the playoffs. Most of the young kids have watched us play, but until you get in that situation you don’t really know what it takes to be successful in the postseason. We got the younger kids in the ball game getting their feet wet for what’s going to happen to them for the next few weeks.”

East Surry 10, North Wilkes 0

NW — 0 0 0 0 0 — 0 1 3

ES — 2 8 0 0 x — 10 8 0

WP: Hayley Shelton

LP: Elledge

Mount Airy tennis wins

The Mount Airy Tennis team took on the Hendersonville Bearcats Tuesday night in what was the toughest match for the Granite Bears all year.

The Bearcats were solid from top to bottom, much like the Buckin’ Elks of Elkin were the week before. Coach Scott John said going into the match he thought it would be decided in doubles which played to Mount Airy’s strengths.

Top two players Nick John and Matt Kessler played the best 1A competition they had seen all year.

“They really had to grind out a tough match,” coach John said. John ended up winning 7-5, 7-5 and Kessler finished his opponent off with 6-4, 10-1 after losing the first set 4-6.

John, Mayberry and Kessler had just competed in Cary last weekend for the individual and doubles’ state titles, but didn’t let fatigue stop them from continuing to win.

“Our guys that were in Cary last weekend are a bit tired, which was a concern for me,” John said, “but they were able to answer the bell once more.”

Mount Airy isn’t sure of who its next opponent will be, but the Bears know they will be on the road Thursday for the Western Regional Finals.

Mount Airy 6, Hendersonville 3

SINGLES

Nick John (MA) d. Bracklin Kirkland (H) 7-5, 7-5; Matt Kessler (MA) d. Charles Colhoun (H) 4-6, 6-4, 10-1; Eric Belton (MA) Ben Brewer-Bowman (H) 6-1, 6-1; Brooks Mayberry (MA) d. Will Huntley (H) 6-2, 6-0; Jonathan Bowie (H) d. Chance Hall (MA) 5-7, 6-0, 10-8; Sam Wilkins (H) d. Taylor Bobbitt (MA) 6-3, 6-2

DOUBLES

John/Mayberry (MA) d. Kirkland/Colhoun (H) 10-2; Kessler/Belton (MA) d. Huntley/Bowie (H) 10-1; Brewer-Bowman/Wilkins (H) d. Hall/Bobbitt (MA) 10-8