If Wednesday does prove the end of Polk County’s baseball season, its future to remain unresolved until Saturday, then its six seniors couldn’t have asked for a better farewell.
The Wolverines closed their 2015 regular season in style, blanking the Asheville Trailblazers 4-0 on a warm afternoon at Polk County.
Now the waiting game begins for the Wolverines (9-12), who have at least an outside shot at a 2A playoff wild card berth. A 9-12 record earned a wild-card slot last season; Polk County will find out if the same is true this season on Saturday when state playoff pairings are announced.
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“All we can do is sit back and wait,” said Polk County head coach Ty Stott.
“This was a good win for our seniors. We have six seniors, and they batted one through six and all played the whole game and all contributed a bit. I thought we played a pretty good game. Anytime you get a shutout, you’re doing pretty good.”
Senior Konner Scruggs did much to make that shutout happen, allowing just three hits and striking out seven in six innings. Junior Daniel Painter pitched a perfect seventh to complete the shutout.
The Wolverines scored the only run they would need in the first as senior Bryce Martin singled, then moved to second before Mark Mazzilli hit an infield grounder to first base. Asheville’s catcher, thinking it the third out, left home plate, allowing an alert Martin to sprint home from third.
Polk added two more runs in the second as Andrew Merriotte and Zachary Johnson singled to open the inning. A fly ball and Martin ground ball left runners on first and third with two outs before Mazzilli hammered a pitch to deep center, allowing both to score for a 3-0 lead.
The Wolverines picked up another run in the sixth as senior Dequan Gary was hit by a pitch, moved to second on Morgan Groves’ sacrifice bunt, moved to third on Painter’s fly out to center and scored on an error.
“It feels so good to win,” Stott said. “We haven’t had any breaks go our way lately, so any time we can come out here and win a game, it feels good. This is something we can build on, and that’s what I was looking for.”
Martin finished 2-for-3, as did Johnson. Mazzilli and Merriotte also had hits for the Wolverines.
