Polk County’s varsity baseball team combined good pitching, base running, defense and timely hitting to crush visiting Avery, 13-1, in five innings (10-run rule) March 21.
The game was originally set for Friday evening, but weather considerations moved it up a day.
The win evened the Wolverines’ overall record at 5-5, and upped it to 4-0 in the conference.
Coach Ty Stott’s crew didn’t hammer the cover off the ball, but got timely hits, and exercised patience in drawing plenty of walks, including three consecutive free passes with the bases full in an 11-run fourth inning.
“We took a while to get going,” remarked Stott, whose team took a 2-0 lead in the first, “but we got going. We can’t lose a game like this, (though) we flirted with it early.”
Polk starting pitcher Alec Philpott mixed speeds, making his fastball appear even faster, as he struck out nine batters in four innings to keep Avery batters off balance. Philpott gave up but one hit, and hit one batter.
“Alec battled for us,” Stott said. “I’d have let him finish if he didn’t have to wait so long (while the Wolverines kept sending runners around the bases in that wild fourth).”
Dequan Gary, who had an active day on the base paths, took the mound in the top of the fifth. Gary walked two batters, but also struck out two, including the last of the inning, while giving up one run.
Philpott recorded four strikeouts and two groundouts in his first two innings. He whiffed the first batter he faced in the third, gave up a line single to right, and bore down fanning the next two, to strike out the side. He also struck out a pair in the fourth, after a hit batter and a force out on a potential double-play ball, put two Avery runners aboard.
Polk got on the board in the first. Lead off batter Tyler Campbell was hit by a pitch. Philpott grounded out, but Campbell moved to second, and advanced to third on a Bryce Martin single to right. Martin stole second, making it second and third with one down.
Cleanup hitter Morgan Groves belted a single to left, scoring Campbell. Martin moved to third and scored one play later on Dylan Turner’s groundout to second, to make it 2-0.
Polk saved its big outburst for the fourth inning. In that frame, Gary led off with a walk, stole second and raced home on Mark Mazilli’s single through the middle. Mazilli stole second, and sprinted to third when a pitch skipped past Avery’s catcher.
Trevor Arrowood bounced one to the infield for the first out.
Campbell hoisted a sacrifice fly to deep right, scoring Mazilli, to make it 4-0. Philpott kept the rally going with a single to left. With Martin batting, Philpott, taking advantage of the marginal throwing ability of the Avery catcher, dashed to second. Shortly after, he was hung up between second and third, where a good throw from the catcher would have nailed him at