By Bob Sutton
Special to The Alamance News
Cooper Partin hit a two-run home run to open the scoring in the third inning and Mark King pitched a complete game as Southern Alamance’s baseball team defeated Triton 7-1 in the third round of the Class 3-A state playoffs Wednesday night at Burlington Athletic Stadium.
The third-seeded Patriots (19-6-1) advance to Friday’s fourth round against a to-be-determined opponent.
Because of field conditions at Southern, the game vs. No. 22 seed Triton (15-11) was postponed Tuesday night – and then site was changed to Burlington Athletic Stadium. Triton errors contributed to Southern’s four-run fifth inning.
Southern topped visiting West Carteret 10-6 in last Friday night’s second round behind the pitching of Kaden Parker and Nathan McKean. McNeal struck out six batters in four innings.
Eli Gilley had three hits and Johnny Rojas had two hits for the Patriots. West Carteret finished with a 14-10 record.
• In Class 2-A, No. 22 seed Southeast Alamance’s season ended with a 6-0 loss at sixth-seeded South Lenoir on Friday night. That completed an 18-8 record for the Stallions, who were limited to three hits.
- In the North Carolina Independent Schools Athletic Association, Cooper Kelly threw a two-hitter with nine strikeouts as Burlington Christian Academy defeated Harrells Christian Academy 9-1 in the Class 2-A state quarterfinals Saturday afternoon.
Kelly, who had three hits at the plate, and JD Mace both drove in two runs in the game at Eastern Guilford High School.
Harrells Christian (8-13) was in its third game of the week.
The top-seeded Royals (21-1), who received a pair of byes, scored three first-inning runs. Their game in the semifinals against fifth-seeded Westchester Country Day School (9-11) was postponed Tuesday and again Wednesday at Eastern Guilford – and now is reset for 5:30 p.m. Thursday at Truist Point in High Point.
The winner heads to the best-of-3 state finals Friday and Saturday at McCrary Park in Asheboro. The opponent will be either Faith Christian out of Rocky Mount or Freedom Christian Academy of Fayetteville.
