Teams ousted from playoffs

The NCHSAA State Playoffs kicked off on Tuesday for baseball and softball. Some of Sampson’s local teams — Clinton and Hobbton baseball and Hobbton and Union softball — made the playoffs, but had to hit the road to take on their competition. Unfortunately for all four teams that found themselves away from home playing higher-seeded teams, it was a brief appearance as they went one and done and were eliminated in the first round.

Clinton Baseball

The Dark Horses received the No. 17 seed and traveled to take on No. 16 seed South Lenoir. The Blue Devils struck early and often on Tuesday night, seizing the 7-2 win to move on.

South Lenoir built a 5-0 lead throughout the first three innings of the game before Clinton posted a run in the top of the fourth. The Blue Devils, though, got that run back plus some in the bottom of the fourth to re-extend their lead to 7-1. For the remainder of the game, South was kept off the scoreboard but the Dark Horses could only scrape together one more run in the top of the sixth to reach the final score of 7-2.

To close out their season, five different players recorded hits. Camden Davis, Alex Evans, Cooper Sessoms, Peyton Moore, and Jaxson Smith all had one hit each.

Clinton finishes the season at 15-6 overall.

Hobbton Baseball

Over at Northside-Pinetown, things didn’t go much better for the No. 30 seeded Wildcats, who dropped their first round game on the road to the No. 3 seeded Panthers by the final score of 8-1.

Scoring and stats were not immediately available following the game. Hobbton concludes their season at 12-10 overall.

Hobbton Softball

The Lady Wildcats also had a shortened postseason trip. They snuck into the playoffs as the No. 31 seed and made the trek up to No. 2 seed Vance Charter. Hobbton came out of the gate strong but things took a quick, downward turn as the Lady Wildcats were eliminated, 14-4.

Hobbton initially took the lead in the top of the first inning, raising some eyebrows with an early 1-0 lead. Vance Charter, though, demonstrated why they were the two seed. The Lady Knights reeled off six runs in the bottom of the first inning, quickly upping the ante for the Lady Wildcats.

After Vance Charter made it 7-1 in the bottom of the second inning, Hobbton struck for three runs in the top of the third, making things interesting again with a score of 7-4. That score held for a couple innings as the Lady Wildcats were hanging out.

The Lady Knights, though, finally said enough is enough. For the second time in the contest, they unloaded for a multitude of runs in the bottom of the fifth inning — seven runs, to be exact — which hit the mercy-rule threshold of the 14-4 score, ending the game.

Stats weren’t immediately available following the contest, but Hobbton concludes the season at 3-16 overall.

Union Softball

Rounding things out is the Lady Spartans, who had a respectable season to earn them the No. 22 seed. They traveled all the way up to Roxboro Community School for a date with the No. 11 seeded Lady Bulldogs. Their game unfolded in similar fashion as Hobbton’s — a close contest early that simply got away as Union fell in five innings, 13-3.

They, too, came out of the gate strong by posting a 2-0 lead in the top of the first inning. Roxboro came back in the bottom of the inning and tied things up and it was 2-2 headed to the second.

A scoreless third inning kept things close but things began to unravel for the Lady Spartans in the third. After going scoreless again, Union’s defense suffered a relentless attack from the Lady Bulldogs as they mounted a 6-run rally to blow the game open.

With the score suddenly 8-2, the Lady Spartans were stunned. Still, they settled in and earned a run back to cut it down to 8-3 in the top of the fourth, but Roxboro was undeterred. They earned that run back in the bottom of the inning and went on to close things out with a 4-run fifth inning to win the game, 13-3.

Stats were not immediately available after the game. With their season concluded, Union finishes at 9-7 overall.