Polk County Middle School’s exciting week continued Thursday.
One day after a nine-inning win over Bethel, the Wolverines rallied for four runs in the top of the seventh en route to an 11-10 win over Canton Middle in the opening round of the Blue Ridge Middle School Conference postseason tournament in Canton.
Polk County (7-8) advances to face top seed and undefeated Macon Middle School on Monday in Franklin.
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Trailing 9-7 entering the seventh, Polk Middle’s comeback began when Tyler Harris opened the inning with a double. Holden Owens followed with a double to drive in Harris, and Brandon Ridings singled to plate Owens with the tying run.
Avery Edwards followed with a bunt single, and an error on Clark Phipps’ grounder allowed Ridings to score. Edwards later scored on Kyler Scruggs’ infield grounder.
“It was pretty exciting,” said Polk County head coach John Ruth. “We’re turning the corner on some things we’ve worked on all year as far as errors and things like that.
“Our pitching was good again. We gave up some hits, but we kept the ball defensively in front of us and stopped them from scoring in certain situations.”
Polk struck early, scoring three runs in the first on Evan Rimer’s RBI single and Ridings’ two-run single. Canton answered with four runs in the bottom of the second, but back came Polk in the fourth, scoring twice on Scruggs’ two-run double that scored Edwards and Elijah Sutton.
Canton scored once in the fourth to tie the game at 5-5, but Polk regained the lead with two runs in the fifth. Harris singled to open the inning, then scored on Owens’ double. Owens then scored on Edwards’ infield grounder to give the Wolverines a 7-5 lead.
Canton’s four-run sixth set the stage for the final rally.
Ridings finished 2-for-4 with four RBI while Owens and Harris each had three hits. Scruggs drove in three runs and Evan Rimer also had a key RBI for Polk County, which had 13 hits in the game.
“Rimer and Scruggs, those are two young guys, seventh graders, that came up big time for us,” Ruth said.
