From thepilot.com – The history of Pinecrest baseball has been engrained in senior J.C. Woolard for nearly his entire life, and over the weekend he carried on the program’s tradition.

Woolard was voted by the Sandhills Athletic Conference coaches as the player of the year, marking the third straight year and the eighth time in the last nine seasons a Pinecrest player was named the conference player of the year.

“It’s kind of crazy to me. Out of all the players that I was picked No. 1,” Woolard said. “It’s crazy how far I’ve come.”

Woolard was joined by teammate junior right-handed pitcher William Chopping on the conference individual honors.

“It’s just carrying on the tradition of what we’re doing here,” Pinecrest coach Jeff Hewitt said. READ MORE.

From thepilot.com – The Pinecrest baseball team completed one of the program’s objectives in its second-round state playoff win against Gray’s Creek at home by winning the fifth inning.

That two-run margin for the Patriots doesn’t tell the full story in the complexity that was a 22-13 win Friday night, sending the Patriots into the third round of the state playoffs for the fifth season in a row.

“One of the things I wanted to try and do was to change the culture. These kids aren’t just kids who are from Pinehurst and they just get everything,” Pinecrest coach Jeff Hewitt said. “We want blue-collar guys. We work our butts off in practice, and that just showed we have been working really hard with our two-strike approach. We knew we had not hit the ball well all year, but what a great time for it to happen in the fifth.”

Next up for the Patriots after surviving the 35-run slugfest is D.H. Conley, the No. 1 seed in the 4A East bracket, on Tuesday. READ MORE.

From richmondobserver.com – Even though it was never the case Thursday, the mentality of the Richmond Raider baseball team was to play like it was “down by a run.”

That do-or-die attitude fueled the Raiders and head coach Eric Brown to undoubtedly their biggest win of the season.

Facing No. 1 Pinecrest High School on the road, No. 2 Richmond upset the Patriots to win the Sandhills Athletic Conference tournament championship. The victory marked the first time since 2015 that the Raiders reigned atop the tournament standings.

A combination of dominant pitching and timely hitting allowed the Raiders to lead the entire game, starting in the top of the first inning.

Mixing small ball and the long ball, Richmond scored its first three runs courtesy of a sacrifice bunt, a sacrifice fly and an RBI groundout. A two-run homer in the middle innings distanced the Raiders for good. READ MORE.