The Friday prior to spring break for students, Polk County High School’s baseball team came back to tie Mountain Heritage but fell, 4-3 in extra (eight) innings at Burnsville.
Some good news was that after the Cougars scored three in the first, the Wolverines were able to keep them off the scoreboard for the next six innings, including a bases-full, one-out situation in the home seventh.
Polk’s J.D. Edwards retired a crucial batter in that frame.
Wes Brady pitched the first five and two-thirds for Polk.
After that first inning, the Wolverines tacked on single runs in the third, fifth and sixth frames, but were unable to get crucial hits to add more.
“We just couldn’t consistently get runners on base,” Coach
Ty Stott said.
Polk fell to 5-12 overall, and 3-5 in the conference, but Stott said he feels that the Wolverines “are still in position where we can be tied for third (in the conference).”
Polk was off last week for spring break.
“We need the break,” Stott said.
The Wolverines resume play today, April 22, at Avery, their second of seven consecutive road games. They next play at home on May 6, against Hendersonville.
When a team tries to overcome this kind of slump (The Wolverines have lost their six most recent games), and when so many close calls seem to favor their opponents, some players will try to do it all on their own.
In one case against Mountain Heritage, said Stott, a Polk runner was out on a very close play trying to go from first to third.
On another, a Polk batter lined the ball to right for a clean single, and raced to second, to stretch it into a double. Unfortunately, the first bounce on the outfield grass sent the ball straight into the air, helping the right fielder throw out the batter– barely.
Both calls, Stott said could have gone either way.
Basically, though, he said, “We didn’t hit, which has been the story.”
Lacking their ace hurler, Daniel Painter, right now, “We’re not the kind of team that’s going to pull off an extra-inning win,” Stott said.