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Polk County’s season came to an end Tuesday as solid West Stokes pitching keyed an 11-1 victory in the opening round of the state 2A baseball playoffs in King.

 

West Stokes (18-5) advances to a second-round game Friday against Brevard, which defeated Madison in its first-round matchup.

 

Polk County ends its year with a 9-12 record.

 

Wildcat starter Jacob Smith allowed just one hit, with seven strikeouts, in four innings. Mason Howell pitched the final inning and gave up two hits and struck out two.

 

Those two hits in the fifth came from two Polk County seniors as Chan Barber singled and Coble Cameron drilled a run-scoring double to deep center field to make it a 10-1 game at that point.

 

West Stokes closed the game with a run in the bottom of the fifth.

 

Polk starter Micah Hill allowed just one hit in the first three innings, but Josh Jones slammed a two-run homer, Smith had a two-run double and Bryson Bowman added a two-run single to highlight the Wildcats’ big fourth inning.