Unbeaten state champs! Providence beats Pinecrest in instant classic in NCHSAA finals
Providence High finished off an unbeaten season with its first state championship in seven years, but Pinecrest made the Panthers work awfully hard for it.
After winning Game 1 of the best-of-3 series 3-0 on Friday night, the Panthers (34-0) needed 3 1/2 hours, four pitchers and 10 innings — three over regulation — to win Game 2.
The Panthers won 3-1 . They ended the season with a perfect record of 34-0, breaking the 18-year-old state record for wins set by East Rutherford in 2004.
And they are ranked No. 3 in the nation by MaxPreps. When people talk about the greatest high school baseball teams ever from North Carolina, these Panthers will at least be in the discussion.
“A lot of us are seniors,” said starter Michael Forret. “We wanted to finish it in two and we wanted to keep the record 34-0 and I knew it would be my last game whether we won or lost, so I went out there and gave everything I had in me. I gave everything I could to this program this game, and we came out on top.”
South Carolina recruit and Major League Draft prospect Eli Jerzembeck, who had 12 strikeouts in a shutout win Friday, came in and threw the final inning Saturday in relief. But on this day, it wasn’t easy for him, either.
Jerzembeck, named championship MVP, hit two batters after striking out the first. Pinecrest eventually loaded the bases, still with one out.
Jerzembeck calmly struck out the next batter, then he forced a ground ball to the second baseman for the final out.
“Going into the season,” Jerzembeck said, “we had the idea that we were good enough to do it. We never gave up. We kept battling and it finally happened....You want to end it with one last hurrah, and we were able to do it.”
Providence got in position to bring its star into the game after taking its first lead in the top of the 10th inning.
Luke Wolff hit a single that left Providence with runners on the corners. Tommy Walker — who had knocked in the game-tying run in the sixth — was up next with one out.
First, Wolff stole second, then Walker hit a line drive single for a 2-1 lead. Following Walker, Collin McDougall hit a ground ball to short that could have been a double play, but a low bouncing throw slipped past the first baseman.
McDouglas was safe, Providence led 3-1 and Jerzembeck, perhaps the best pitcher in North Carolina, went to warm up.
“It’s the best feeling in the world, man,” Walker said. “This is my last game ever, and we came in here thinking, ‘Let’s finish this. We went 33-0 and we’re not gonna lose now.’”
In the end, it was a championship game that a lot of Providence High players, and Providence High fans, will never forget.
It also ended a season many of them will never forget, either.
“It means a lot to me and to these kids,” Panthers coach Danny Hignight said. “They’ve worked so hard, and heard all about records and this and that, and they finished.”
PHOTOS: Providence vs. Pinecrest
Cherryville falls short of 10th baseball crown
Cherryville came up one big hit short of a rally Saturday night, falling 6-3 to Perquimans in the decisive game of the 1A state championship baseball series.
It was the final athletic event of the 2021-22 school year in North Carolina.
Perquimans took the series, played at Ting Stadium in Holly Springs, in three games. Saturday night’s contest was required after Cherryville trounced the Pirates 6-1 earlier in the day in Game 2.
The loss deprived the Ironmen of their 10th state baseball championship. Their first came more than a century ago, in 1917. Perquimans won its fourth state title – but its first in 59 years.
Cherryville (22-12) scored first in the final game, as Collin Huss doubled and Landon Hahn drove him home with a single in the top of the third inning.
But Perquimans (31-2) went ahead to stay in the bottom of the inning, scoring three times with two outs. Mason Winslow doubled, then Jakob Means scored Winslow with a single. Two more runs came home after a faulty relay throw in the Cherryville infield.
Cherryville got two runners aboard in the fifth, but Perquimans extinguished the rally by calling on its ace, Tanner Thach, who had pitched in Game 1 of the series. Thach retired two batters to end the threat.
The Pirates scored three more times in the bottom of the fifth, thanks to a pair of Cherryville errors.
Cherryville needed a big hit in both the sixth and seventh innings but didn’t get it.
The Ironmen threatened against Thach in the top of the sixth, loading the bases. Huss singled home one run, and another run scored on an infield out. But Thach then got the third out.
Cherryville got two runners aboard in the seventh but couldn’t score.
Game 2
Cherryville scored three times in the bottom of the first inning and pulled away to a 6-1 victory over Perquimans.
Collin Robinson singled home Landon Hahn, who had tripled, and the Ironmen also scored on an infield hit and a wild pitch.
Cherryville made it 5-0 in the third on a two-run single by Collin Huss. After Perquimans got a run in the top of the fourth, Cherryville scored in the sixth, thanks to an outfield error by the Pirates.
-- Steve Lyttle
This story was originally published June 4, 2022 at 2:25 PM.
