The Foothills West Junior Legion team kept its season alive with a 7-1 win over Eastern Randolph on June 29.
Foothills Post 123, which played host to the double elimination round of the postseason, started slow against Post 81 and only held a 2-1 advantage through three innings. Foothills tightened things up on defense to hold the visitors to just two hits after the first inning, while the home squad piled on five runs on six hits in the same span.
Brayden Woodring and Ian Hooker each recorded two hits for Foothills, while five of their teammates added one hit each: Will Pardue, Davin Weatherford, Landon Johnson, Jax Whitaker and Garrett Higgins.
More than half of Post 123’s hits earned extra bases; Woodring recorded a triple and a double, Higgins hit one triple, and both Hooker and Johnson had one double.
Eastern Randolph scored its only run in the top of the first inning. Three of the visitors’ first four batters recorded singles, and some crafty baserunning led to Post 81 scoring the opening run of Saturday’s game.
As the temperature ascended into the 90s, Foothills pitcher Pardue also turned up the heat. Pardue pitched a complete game and finished with seven strikeouts, three bases on balls, and allowed one run on five hits.
Post 123 followed Post 81’s three-hit first inning with one of their own. Pardue led the inning off with a line drive but was picked off before he could advance past first base. Weatherford took Pardue’s spot after earning a base on balls, then Johnson hit a frozen rope to center field to bring Weatherford in for the game-tying run.
Johnson scored later in the inning off a double from Woodring.
Foothills only recorded one hit across the second and third innings before tripling their lead in the fourth. Woodring swung at the first pitch thrown his way and sent it to deep left-center field for a triple. Hooker brought Woodring in with a single to make it 3-1. Post 81 followed by catching a line drive in center field, but then Higgins hit a triple of his own to score Hooker.
Post 123’s lead grew to 5-1 when Higgins scored on a ground out from Cameron Shores. Pardue followed by earning a base on balls, then Weatherford hit a ground ball to third base that was overthrown at first. The error allowed Pardue to score and Weatherford to make it to second.
Foothills added its final run in the bottom of the fifth. Jax Whitaker led the inning off by being hit by a pitch, moved to second on a balk then scored when Hooker hit a line drive to left field.
Saturday’s win put Foothills back on track after dropping their Friday night game 11-1 vs. Kannapolis. The loss broke Post 123’s 6-game winning streak.
Foothills will return to the field June 30 against an opponent to be determined.
Pitching
Eastern Randolph
Landon Albright — 4 1/3 IP, 1K, 3 BB, 2 HBP, 9H, 7R
Carlos Cordero — 1 2/3 IP, 2K, 1 BB, 0 HBP, 0H, 0R
Foothills
Will Pardue — 7 IP, 7K, 3 BB, 0 HBP, 5H, 1R
Scoring
Randolph — 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0 — 1
Foothills — 2, 0, 0, 4, 1, 0, X — 7
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