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By Brian Pitts
Enterprise Record

The Mocksville Junior Legion baseball team needed a burst of sunshine after dropping the first five games of the season, and it got just that with a home win, 5-3, over rival West Forsyth.
“They were pretty fired up,” coach Blake Little said. “If we were going to win any game this year, I definitely wanted it to be West Forsyth. There’s a lot of Davie kids on the team, so they felt the same way. There was definitely a little more energy in the ballpark compared to some other games.”
Before getting off the schneid against West, Mocksville endured a forgettable 13-0 road loss to Davidson County on June 8. That came two days after a 12-0 loss at Kannapolis, so it’s been a bumpy ride for a young squad.
Wade Hefner and Brayden Carter had the only two hits at Davidson, and both were doubles. Davidson, by contrast, put up crooked numbers in three of its four at-bats.
Unfortunately, it was more of the same in a home rematch with Davidson County on June 10. Mocksville offset its 10-7 advantage in hits with seven errors and lost 14-7. It was 4-0 before Mocksville swung the bat.
The bright spots were Britt Sink, Hefner and Gabe McMurray, who had two hits each. Mocksville got one hit from Jason Riddle (double, two RBIs), Ben Bost, Kolby Long (two RBIs) and Bowen Link.
“We’ve got five eighth graders and four of them are starting pretty regularly,” Little said. “That’s not very common, especially for our program. We’re traditionally mostly freshmen and sophomores. We’ve only got three or four sophomores, and we had to bring a few eighth graders from Ellis to give the team a little depth.”
Mock 5, WF 3
After getting outscored 55-16 in the first five games, Mocksville responded in a major way in the first meeting with West Forsyth Blue on June 11. Post 174 did not trail after the top of the first inning.
It was 1-1 when Mocksville came to bat in the third. Dylan Garwood and Sink sparked a surge with singles. Garwood scampered home when Sink stole second. It was 3-1 in the home team’s favor following a hit by Riddle.
West closed within 4-3, but Mocksville got an insurance run in the fifth. The rally started with two outs when Long was plunked. Then he stole second and scored on an error.
Mocksville got clutch offensive production from Sink (2 for 4), Riddle (2-3, two RBIs) and Garwood (2-3), the trio accounting for all six hits.
Sink is a rising sophomore at North Iredell.
“He’s been playing a good third base for us, he’s stepped up in the two spot and has hit the ball well, especially the last few games,” Little said.
Riddle is a rising sophomore at Davie who is hitting an eye-catching .467.
“And he’s got an OPS over 1,000, so he’s been tearing the cover off the baseball,” Little said. “His outs have been loud off the bat. I don’t know how many strikeouts he has, but he doesn’t have very many, maybe one or two. He’s been hitting the ball to all fields. Even his outs have been productive at-bats.”
Garwood is a rising junior at Davie.
“He had a minor role last year, but he’s really stepped up,” Little said. “He’s taking good at-bats and getting on base, and he’s been really aggressive on the base paths. He’s helped us out a lot. He usually plays second base, but he was the DH. There was no way I could leave his bat and his base running out of the lineup.”
Not only did Riddle build on his team-high batting average, he made an insane catch while playing first base for the first time in years.
“The ball was at least a foot outside the fence (in foul territory),” Little said. “He goes airborne, jumps over the fence and he is parallel with the ground. He catches the ball and comes back over the fence. It was probably the best play I’ve seen by a first baseman in my time coaching and playing. It was awesome. He told me that was his first game playing first base since he was way younger. He’s been catching for us, but now he’ll probably be playing first base for a while.”
The two pitchers were a big part of the win. Colton Howard went five innings and held West to two earned runs.
“He’s had some good outings,” Little said. “He had one or two bad pitches all night, and those are the pitches that West capitalized on. They are a really good hitting team, and he held them to three runs. He was hitting his spots. He kept his offspeed down and out of the zone and hit the corners with his fastball.”
Nick Cannon was stellar in relief, striking out 5 of 7 batters in 2 hitless innings. He whiffed the first 2 batters of the 7th. West brought the tying run to the plate after a walk, but Cannon had the save when he induced a groundout to 2nd baseman Cayden Thalasinos.
“Nick’s always been a big kid who throws hard,” Little said. “This is his second outing for us this year, and it’s coming out of his hand a little bit different this year. He looked like he was mid- to low 80s.”