Murphy – Leading 5-1 heading into the top of the seventh, Eastern Randolph was looking for another insurance run. Stratton Barwick was on third and after taking a customary lead off the bag, took off as Murphy catcher Joe Swain threw the ball back to pitcher Briggs Cornwell.
Cornwell fired back to Swain, but it was too late. Barwick slid in safe, taking advantage of another Murphy mistake.
“They did very good base running kind of caught us off guard late in the game with some delayed steals that we’ve not seen this year,” head coach Adam Clonts said. “We had a good scouting report on them, we knew they did that. When you don’t see it and it’s in the back of your mind, and it happens and you realize it, it’s too late at that point.”
The Wildcats capitalized on their opportunities and Bulldogs mistakes all afternoon, while Murphy struggled at the plate in a 6-1 loss in the first round of the N.C. High School Athletic Association 1A playoffs.
After tying with Swain County for the Smoky Mountain Conference championship, the two teams drew numbers and the Bulldogs (14-6 overall) drew second, dropping them from the potential No. 5 seed in the 1A West to the No. 10 seed.
As the No. 23 seed, Eastern Randolph looked much better than their 7-16 record. The Wildcats started the season 0-9 but went 7-7 to finish the regular season. They also faced some tough competition in the 1A/2A Piedmont Athletic Conference, which has 1A stalwart Uwharrie Charter and defending 2A state champion Randleman.
Clonts knew Murphy would have to play pretty well to win, and the Bulldogs just didn’t do enough. The Wildcats made solid contact against Briggs Cornwell in all seven innings, and after leaving runners on in the first two innings, struck for two in the third.
No. 9 hitter Alex Kivett reached on an infield single, then advanced to third on two passed balls. Leadoff hitter Brody Gardner followed by reaching on an error that scored Kivett, then Gardner would steal and score on a groundout by Ethan Frye.
An RBI double by Will Carringer in the bottom of the third cut Eastern Randolph’s lead to 2-1, but the Wildcats had an answer. Nick Brady launched a home run over the left-field fence in the fifth, while Cameron Davis and Lucas Smith both scored in the sixth inning on passed balls.
Murphy, meanwhile, struggled at the plate. Eastern Randolph starter Jayden Moffitt mixed pitches well, and the Bulldogs never fully adjusted. They had runners reach on one out walks in the second and third, but both were thrown out trying to steal second. From that point, Murphy’s only reached base with two outs.
“That’s the best pitching we’ve seen,” Clonts said. “Usually we see a kid that can throw one pitch for a strike pretty much very consistent and then his other pitches aren’t necessarily strikes. Today we saw a kid that could throw at least three different pitches for a strike, locate well.”
The loss ends the Murphy career of seven seniors, a group Clonts said will always be the “what if” group because of several factors, like COVID-19 and injuries in other sports, that meant this group wasn’t fully healthy for very long. But the Bulldogs still went a combined 40-14 in 2019, 2021 and 2022 and finished second in the conference twice before winning it this year.
“Overall, they had a very successful high school baseball career,” Clonts said of the senior class. “Came up very short and didn’t do what we wanted to do today to make a playoff run, but that’s baseball and it’s just