The Queens Grant High School baseball team did not play their best game of the season against a good hitting club from Uwharrie Charter Academy. The visitors took the Stallion pitchers deep several times and hit two home runs and 3 extra base hits.
Stallion center fielder Andy Duran made two excellent catches on drives hit to deep left center to track them down to prevent any further damage from the Eagles power hitters.
Senior starter Bryce Gorospe looked good for three innings, and he showed his competitiveness on the mound, especially in the first inning when he gave up a hit and a walk with only one out, he allowed a fly ball to Duran for the second out, the next batter would drill a drive to deep center field, Duran made a nice over the shoulder running catch to end the threat about 355 feet from home plate with the 361 foot sign looming real close.
In the second inning the Stallions scored first when Andrew Ollenberger would smack a single up the middle, he would get to second base on a passed ball, then Leo Hoffer with two outs would dump a base hit into right field for the RBI. This gave the Stallions an early 1-0 lead.
However, in the fourth inning things just fell apart for the Stallions and Gorospe. The Eagles loaded the bases, and would add a couple of hits, a double, a walk, and two muffed defensive opportunities that should have been outs to end the inning. This includes a ball that fell for a base hit to left that should have been caught, and a come backer to the mound that should have been handled and was kicked around by the pitcher.
With the team now down 6-1 coach Kerr called on Cameron King to put out the fire and get the third out. King did his job, but the damage had already been done and possibly the knock our punch. The Stallions could not mount an attack offensively in their turn at bat and the score remained 6-1.
The knock out punch did arrive in the next inning when senior slugger Jonathan Weaver would crush a 400 foot home run deep over the 339 foot sign in right center into the tall trees for a three run home run increasing the Eagles lead to 9-1.
In the next inning, a solo shot was hit about 365 feet over the right field wall into the tree line off of Leo Hoffer for another insurance run making the score 10-1 after six innings.
In the bottom of the seventh, the Stallions would not give up and showed true grit. They rallied and scored 4 runs with the bases loaded, Jacob Beard would work a walk for an RBI, then Alwin Duran would hit a one hopper deep into left center off the wall at the 361 foot sign for a double and two more RBI’s, now with runners on second and third, Nick Kuebler would hit a ball deep to center field for the RBI and final run of the inning.
The Stallions season ended just one game shy from playing the best of a three game series in Winston-Salem for the Western Regional Championship with the opportunity to play for the state title. The team ended up 19-8 overall, and 11-3 as PAC 7 Conference Champions.
After the game, coach Kerr was disappointed, he felt his team did not play the best game of the season when they had too. However, he was very proud of how the kids never gave up and rallied to score four runs in the bottom of the seventh, and stranding two runners on base before the final out was made.
