Wolverines’ final rally comes up just short in loss to Brevard

Polk County’s softball season likely came to an end Thursday, but not without one last bit of fight shown by the Wolverines.

Polk erased two-thirds of a three-run deficit in its final at-bat, but eventually fell 5-4 to Brevard in a Mountain Foothills 7 Conference matchup at Polk.

The Wolverines (8-13, 3-9) won’t officially learn their postseason fate until Monday. But at 36th in the NCHSAA RPI ratings as of Friday morning, Polk County isn’t expected to receive a wild-card playoff bid.

No postseason trip, though, shouldn’t deter from the promise the Wolverines showed this season. Polk started four freshmen and three sophomores Thursday, with another freshman seeing extended playing time. There’s many good things ahead for the Wolverine program.

Four of those young faces were part of the Wolverines’ seventh-inning rally. With one out, Laney Littlefield and Mia Bradley stroked back-to-back line drives to center, with both runners then advancing a base on Katelynn Arrowood’s deep fly ball to right field.

Chloe Young then drilled a double into the gap in left-center, scoring both runners and putting the tying run on second. The rally ended there as Brevard (16-7, 7-5) notched a strikeout to seal the win.

Polk took an early 2-1 lead as Bradley tripled to open the bottom of the first and scored on Arrowood’s base hit. Sarah Vitale then delivered a one-out single that scored Arrowood.

Brevard regained the lead with three runs in the third, then added what proved to be the winning run in the fifth as Analiese Woodbury walked and came around to score on a series of wild pitches and an error.

Bradley finished 2-for-4, with Arrowood, Young, Amberlyn Scruggs, Sarah Vitale, Elizabeth Vitale and Littlefield each adding a base hit.

All of those players are slated to return next season, as is the entirety of a Polk County roster that didn’t have a single senior on it.