Midway’s baseball team wrapped up yet another conference championship on Thursday evening with a 3-0 win over Wallace-Rose Hill. The win assures Midway of a home playoff game, and possibly home-field advantage throughout the Eastern Region.
Midway’s Matt Barefoot was simply firing on all cylinders on the mound. The left-handed, hard-throwing Campbell University commit got the complete game shutout win, allowing just 1 hit, walking 2 and striking out 9 Bulldog batters.
Midway got off to a good start in the bottom of the first inning when Kyle Hawley tripled in Matt Barefoot. Hawley’s pinch runner, Landon Dorman scored a pitch later on a wild pitch to give Midway all of the cushion they would need, and put them up 2-0.
The Raiders would get a run of insurance in the sixth inning when Drake Strickland got a clutchwhack with a runner in scoring position with two outs. The run gave Midway the final margin of victory, 3-0.
The biggest at bat of the game was seemingly when Wallace had the bases loaded in the fifth inning. Barefoot fired a fast ball in on the hands of the Bulldogs’ ninth batter who hit a towering pop-up behind the plate. Hawley, the Raider catcher was able to snag it out of the air to end the inning and get MHS out of the jam.
“This is a good group of kids,” said Midway’s head coach Jason Fussell. “We love the way that our Seniors have stepped up this year. They are the reason we’re here and have a conference championship this season. They’ve done a great job of leading us. We are happy to have won the conference but we have bigger goals for the rest of the season,” finished the head coach of the Raiders.
Midway will play at home either next Tuesday or Wednesday in the first round of the NCHSAA State Playoffs. The opponent, date, or time is yet to be determined, as brackets are slated to be released on Sunday evening. For more information on Midway baseball, follow Adam Capps on Twitter @ac4birdie and the Sampson Independent @SampsonInd.