Long ball lifts Pembroke past Prospect for MS baseball title

PEMBROKE — Home runs aren’t quite as common at the middle school level of baseball — but that means when they happen, they’re that much more momentous.

Two of them proved to be pivotal for the Pembroke Middle School team Monday.

Ayden Hammond and Langston Locklear each hit one out, helping lead the Warriors to a 9-4 win over Prospect in the third-straight championship-game meeting between the schools.

“We set out with the goal of getting back to this game,” Pembroke coach Jonathan Graham said. “We got here last year and kind of fell a little short, so my goal throughout the playoffs was to keep the motivation, keep the energy, not let us fall flat after we went undefeated in the regular season, not expecting it to be handed to us and still getting out here with energy and intensity and trying to work hard and make sure we secure the win instead of falling flat.”

Hammond’s homer gave Pembroke (13-0) a 2-0 lead in the first inning. Langston Locklear’s blast was part of a four-run fourth that gave the Warriors a 6-1 lead.

“(Ayden) is a leader for us,” Graham said. “Langston, he stepped up and got us that big home run with Ayden left (with injury), and we kind of felt the momentum going our way there.”

“It just didn’t feel real,” Langston Locklear said. “It felt nice though. It felt good to finally hit a home run. … I didn’t think it got over, but it did. I thought I pulled it too far like the other one, but it went fair.”

Both homers came after Prospect errors kept the inning alive.

“We sort of beat ourselves,” Prospect coach Derek Brewer said. “Our pitcher (Eli Freeman) pitched a gem, he just didn’t have no help on the defensive side. If we’d have just cleaned up the defensive side, we would’ve had a shot at it, but we just beat ourselves. We just kicked the ball around too much — you can’t do that against a good team, a good team will beat you.”

Pembroke’s Seth Brooks pitched a complete game, allowing five hits with 11 strikeouts. He also reached base three times offensively and scored each time.

“I was just throwing strikes, because I knew my team was behind me and I knew they were going to have my back and get outs,” Brooks said. “I just let them make plays; I just had to trust them.”

Pembroke extended its lead to 8-2 after the fourth inning. Prospect (11-2) scored two runs in the seventh.

Caige Locklear reached base twice and scored each time for Prospect. Brayden Locklear had two hits for the Wildcats.

Pembroke won its 10th county championship since 2006. The top-seeded Warriors were 10-0 through the regular season before beating No. 8 Orrum and No. 4 Littlefield in the first two rounds of the playoffs.

“Just the whole team in general worked hard throughout the season and didn’t get lackadaisical and try to coast, everybody was trying to get better, and they did a good job of stepping up each week.”

Pembroke beat Prospect for the title in 2021 and Prospect defeated Pembroke in the final last year.

Prospect (11-2) lost only to Pembroke this season. The No. 2 Wildcats beat No. 7 Parkton and No. 3 St. Pauls to reach the championship game.

“I’m still proud of these guys, because this team here is not really the most talented team we’ve had, but they’ve come together as a team, they’ve busted their butt, and we didn’t lose but two games,” Brewer said. “I’m very proud of these guys and what they accomplished this year.”