Big Rally Lifts Caps Past Knightdale

A great team win.  Broughton rallied for a wild 15-12 victory after falling behind 7-0 in the 1st inning and scoring nine in the 7th.  This marks back to back games where the Caps pulled it out in its final at bat.

Cam Epperson (Sr.) stopped the bleeding and did a nice job in relief by shutting down the Knightdale bats for two plus innings. In the Caps 3rd, Will Baldwin (Sr. SS) got things going with a hard single to left, followed by another hard single by Warren Grady (Jr. CF), Kyle Ehlers (Soph. 3B) walked to load the bases,  Epperson walked scoring Baldwin, Mathis Dean (Soph. 1B) had an RBI infield single scoring Grady, Dylan Lamm’s (Sr. LF) RBI ground out scored Ehlers, and pinch runner Will Gilchrist (Jr.) tagged up and scored on an RBI sacrifice fly by Thomas Walden (Sr. RF) pulling the Caps to within 3.

In the Broughton 4th, Baldwin walked, stole second, and scored on Grady’s RBI double, Ehlers was hit by a pitch, Epperson singled for the second time to load the bases, Grady scored on a throwing error to bring the Caps to within one.  Eli DeJesus (Sr.) came on to pitch in the 4th and held the Knights scoreless.  Broughton loaded the bases in the 5th as DeJesus walked, Penn Sealey (Fr. C) singled and Grady walked but all three runners were left stranded.  Knightdale managed to score 4 in the 5th to make it 11-6 after 5 innings.

The Caps missed on another scoring opportunity by leaving the bases loaded in the 6th (Dean walked, Lamm singled and Walden walked).  Whitty Williams (Jr. P) came on to pitch the 6th and set the Knights down in order on just eight pitches.

Broughton entered the 7th trailing 11-6.  The Caps rallied by sending 13 to the plate and scoring 9 runs, 8 of which came with two outs.  Baldwin reached on an error, Grady singled for his 3rd hit, Ehlers reached on a fielder’s choice, Grady scored on a wild pitch and Epperson walked.  After the second out of the inning, Lamm had an RBI single to plate Ehlers (8-11), Walden reached on an error to load the bases, Williams followed with a clutch two-run single in his first at bat of the season scoring Epperson and Lamm (10-11), Sealey reached on an error with Walden coming home to tie the score at 11.  Baldwin followed with a two-run single and took second as pinch runner Gilchrist and Sealey scored the go ahead runs (13-11), Grady walked and Ehler’s singled to left knocking in Baldwin and Grady (his 4th run) to make the score 15-11.   Knightdale was able to score one run before Jacob McCaslin (Sr. P) came on to record the final out for gutsy come from behind win.

Defensive highlights: Robert Ramseur (Fr. C) split time with Sealey behind the plate and did nice work keeping the ball in front, and Walden had a strong throw to the cut-off man, Dean, who made a nice throw to Ehlers at 3rd cutting down a runner.

Memorable moments: Penn Sealey (Fr. C) got his first hit as a high schooler and Whitty Williams (Jr. P) got his first hit in his first at bat as a Varsity player.

Next game: Friday, March 11th @ Broughton vs. Wake Forest @ 4:00.

Record – Overall (4-1)  Conference (0-0)

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