Hunt rally sinks Fike, 4-1

With Fike High senior pitcher Caleb Maddrey threatening to crash the Senior Night for his former Hunt teammates Nick Worrell and Khalil McIver, the Warriors’ underclassmen stepped up to save the day Friday at Sid Boyette Field.

Hunt trailed by a run entering the bottom of the sixth inning when the Warriors rallied for four runs to take a 4-1 victory to split the season series.

“It’s a win. Our team battled,” said Warriors head coach Jon Smith, “Caleb Maddrey threw the ball well, kept us off balance. Their defense played pretty good early on. Just a little frustrating because we had some balls that were hit pretty good but right at people, but it was kind of a frustrating night offensively; couldn’t get anything going.”

The Warriors finished the regular season 13-8 overall and 8-6 and tied for fourth place with Southern Wayne in the 3-A Quad County Conference standings. Hunt owns the tiebreaker with the Saints but both squads will have to get into the NCHSAA 3-A playoffs as wild-card entries since only the top three teams of the eight-team Quad County — West Johnston, C.B. Aycock and South Johnston, in order — are assured of postseason berths.

Fike, which thumped Hunt 12-6 on Tuesday at Gilbert Ferrell Field, will have to wait and see if its season will continue when the NCHSAA unveils its playoff brackets Monday, May 6. The Demons are 8-14 overall and 4-10 in Quad County, tying them with East Wake for sixth place.

“What a week of emotions and anytime you’re dealing with Senior Night — you know, the best thing that happened this week is that both teams won at home on Senior Night,” said Fike head coach Jay Wheeler. “Gosh, what a game tonight! Very quick-moving game for five and a half innings then it slowed down there in the sixth.”

The game was scoreless through four innings as Maddrey and Hunt sophomore right-hander Trevor Moore worked in and out of trouble. The Warriors put a runner in scoring position in three of the first four innings but couldn’t move him over. Six of the Demons’ eight runners left on base came in the first four innings.

Fike finally broke through in the fifth against Moore as No. 9 hitter, second baseman C.J. Summerlin, singled to lead off. Catcher Evan Ferrell bunted him over and, after senior shortstop Jake Flowers flew out to left field, Maddrey bounced a single on the left side that brought in Summerlin.

Moore exited in the sixth after giving up consecutive one-out singles to first baseman Daniel Holloman and right fielder Connor Todd. Shortstop Connor Radford took over on the mound and ended the threat with a strikeout and a comeback line drive by Summerlin. Moore scattered six hits and walked two in his 5 1/3 innings. Radford, who was touched for three runs on four hits in less than an inning on the mound Tuesday at Fike, retired all five batters he faced in picking up the win.

“Trevor pitched well. I don’t think he was as sharp as he wanted to be, but he’s still pitched very good,” Smith said. “And C.J. came in and threw the ball much better tonight than he did the other night.”

Meanwhile, Smith’s former player Maddrey, a three-year varsity player at Hunt before transferring to Fike before his senior year, got out of the fifth with an inning-ending double play but he issued his first walk to Hunt leadoff batter Jake Harris to start the sixth. Hunt slugger Seth Evans laid down a sacrifice bunt to move him to second and Wheeler opted to intentionally walk Worrell to set up the force play. However, sophomore Will Doll made Fike play when he poked a single to right field to bring in Harris with the tying run.

After getting Radford to pop up, Maddrey walked catcher Ryan Bass. Wheeler had seen enough and sent Flowers to the mound with the bases full of Warriors. He walked first baseman Joe Glover to force in Worrell and give Hunt the lead.

Smith inserted Stone Massey to pinch-hit for Moore and the freshman produced with a double to left-center field that brought home two huge insurance runs.

Wheeler was kicking himself afterwards.

“Caleb, my goodness, what a performance from him,” the Fike coach said. “You know, hindsight is always 20/20 There’s no question I should have left him in. The kid had a pitch count. I just know he had pitched three times through the lineup even though he pitched so well, three times through the lineup in a close game like that, I just decided to go with a different look. Jake is a guy that can wake up in the morning and shower and hop out and throw strikes. And he did that, but there’s no question I should have left Caleb in — no doubt about that.”

Still with a chance to tie in the seventh, Fike’s top of the order went down 1-2-3 and that was it.

“I felt like Fike got the lead-off batter on just about every inning, it seemed like, until the seventh,” said Smith, whose estimate was only half correct. “But it was just one of those nights where we both had chances but you gotta give credit to the pitcher for making pitches or defense making plays or whatever. It’s kind of a weird deal.”

Maddrey and Todd each had two hits for Fike while Doll was 2 for 3 to pace Hunt. The Demons collected seven hits to five by the Warriors and each team committed two errors.

Score by innings:

Fike 000 010 0 — 1

Hunt 000 004 x — 4

W-Connor Radford 1 2/3 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 1 SO. L-Caleb Maddrey 5 2/3 IP, 4 H, 4 R, 3 BB, 1 SO.

LEADING HITTERS — Fike: Caleb Maddrey 2-4, RBI; Connor Todd 2-3; C.J. Summerlin 1-3, R. Hunt: Will Doll 2-3, RBI; Stone Massey 1-1, 2B, 2 RBIs.

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