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By Brian Pitts

Enterprise Record

High Point broke open a tight game in the fifth inning and won 8-2 as the Mocksville Legion baseball team fell into a two-games-to-one deficit in this cold-hot-cold playoff series.

None of the games have been close as High Point climbed within one win of eliminating Mocksville. The margins in the first two games were 10 – 10-0 in favor of High Point and a 12-2 romp by Mocksville. Game three was held at Finch Field in High Point on July 5.

It was a 2-1 game going into the home half of the fifth. That’s when things went sideways for Aaron Hutchens and Mocksville. The righthander kept his team in contention until High Point scored five runs on five hits and a walk. When the dust cleared, it was 7-1.

After walking just six batters through 21 innings, Hutchens struggled to find the strike zone in this one; he walked six in 4.1. Jay Brookshire and Hunter Baldwin worked in relief, but neither could slow High Point’s momentum.

“I needed Aaron to go as far as he could so I could save our pitching,” coach Tristan Wyatt said. “For the most part, he did his part. He held a 2-1 deficit for a little bit.”

High Point pounded out 13 hits and pushed its record to 19-5. It received a stellar pitching performance from Grayson McDonald, who covered seven innings in 93 pitches.

Caden Irvin (2-3, two doubles) accounted for two of Mocksville’s five hits. Mason Moxley (1-3), Bryson Morrison (1-2, walk) and Brookshire (1-3) had one apiece. Hutchens reached twice on hit-by-pitches.

Irvin, the No. 1 hitter at .387, extended his hitting streak to six games, but it wasn’t nearly enough to keep Mocksville from stumbling to 11-14. (Moxley is second at .375.)

“Once again, we were a 10-man show,” Wyatt said of his thin depth. “It really should have been a lot closer than the final. We had a couple of mishaps that led to their hit parade in the fifth inning.”