Juniors explode for 16 runs in 1 inning

Published 11:23 am Tuesday, July 8, 2025

By Brian Pitts
Enterprise Record

The Mocksville Junior Legion baseball team’s final game on June 30 was quite the roller coaster.
Things looked extremely bleak for Post 174 as visiting West Rowan exploded out of the gate, scoring four runs in each of the first three innings to forge a 12-3 lead.
At that point, it appeared Mocksville’s season was going to end with a thud. Incredibly, Mocksville wound up run-ruling the visitors in four and a half innings by a football-esque score of 22-12.
“We didn’t have our best pitching – we did not have a true pitcher that night – and I am not sure that they did, either,” coach Blake Little said. “And I think the run total mirrored that.”
There have not been many explosions like the Mocksville third, when it sent 22 batters to the plate, rapped 11 hits, drew five walks, took advantage of two errors and scored 16 runs. Joseph Johnson, Wade Hefner, Tay Settecasi and Mason Canter banged two hits apiece in the third inning alone. The last hit of the inning was the exclamation point, a grand slam by Jonus Johnson. When the smoke cleared, it was 19-12 Mocksville.
“That’s easily the most runs in an inning that I’ve ever been a part of,” Little said. “They made a few mistakes, and we started hitting the ball like we’re capable. Combine those two things – with a few walks here and there – and we just put it on them.”
Mocksville’s offense wasn’t done yet. It pushed across three more in the fourth to attain the 10-run lead. After two hit batsmen, a walk and an error, Jonus Johnson singled. Then Ben Bost scored on West’s sixth error of the day to make it 22-12.
“They are well coached, but they were on the younger side, even compared to our team,” Little said. “And we are real young this year. They had four or five middle schoolers on the field. They are good, they’re just a little undersized.”
Mocksville got fabulous offensive outings from Jonus Johnson (2 for 3, three runs, five RBIs), Joseph Johnson (3-3, three runs), Hefner (2-5, three runs, six RBIs), Settecasi (2-3, two runs) and Canter (2-3, two runs). Adding one hit apiece were Bost (1-4, three runs), Jason Riddle (1-2, two runs, two RBIs, three walks) and Kolby Long (1-2). Mocksville finished with 15 hits, while Dylan Garwood walked twice and scored twice.
While Little’s first three pitchers had some dreadful moments, the last two picked up the slack. Britt Sink worked around three walks to hold West scoreless over 1.2 innings, and closer Jonus Johnson only faced four batters in the fifth.
The five Mocksville arms combined for 148 pitches, 13 walks and five wild pitches. But West’s four hurlers had bigger problems: 129 pitches in four innings, 74 balls, four hit batsmen.
The start of the season was not good as Mocksville dropped the first five games. Give it credit for climbing out of the gutter and finishing 7-7.
“You look at the trends of the year and you can easily see that we got better,” Little said. “We found ways to make less mistakes and capitalize off the other team’s mistakes. That’s one of the most important things in baseball right there. When you find out how to do those two things, you win more games.”
And the arrows are pointing upward for 2026.
“I think it was a big success, and we have got a bunch of young guys who are eligible to come back next year,” he said. “So next year should be even better. We only have two or three guys who will age out.”