Cape Fear survives Gray's Creek in 10-inning barn-burner for trip to U8 title game
Cape Fear baseball is headed to the United 8 championship game, and made it to its destination in dramatic fashion.
It took 10 long, hard-fought innings for the Colts to get to their third consecutive conference tournament championship game after a walk-off sacrifice fly from freshman Landon Underwood to top Gray's Creek 6-5 on Wednesday.
"We had a lot of opportunities, but we just couldn't get that last run across; but credit to our guys for putting themselves in the situation with an opportunity to win the game. They executed perfectly and I'm proud of them," coach Jarrod Britt said.
Walk off sac-fly in the bottom of the 10th inning. Super grateful to be able to compete in this spot! @BUncommitted@CFColtsBaseball@PG_Uncommittedpic.twitter.com/qtSVGvgC5Q
— Landon underwood (@Landon24086398) May 2, 2024
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Cape Fear’s Lucca Pascarella hits a 3-run 💣 to right field at the bottom of the 1st giving the Colts a 3-0 lead over Gray’s Creek@luccapascarellapic.twitter.com/l257fdjqeX
— James 🍪 (@ogcookie_) May 1, 2024
Hosting Gray's Creek in the U8 semifinals, Cape Fear got it going in the bottom half of the first inning with a Lucca Pascarella shot to right-field for a three-run homer to break open the game early.
But in the second inning, the Bears had an answer at the plate and in the field, tacking on three runs of their own and then taking the lead in the fourth. Then the defense cranked up a notch for the Colts down the stretch.
"We've won enough games this year to handle these big situations, so I never had any doubt when we were down," Britt said. “I trust them completely."
The Colts didn't allow a run after the fourth inning, and tied it up at five in the sixth after a wild pitch from Andrew Mabe brought in Ethan Colletti.
"Our biggest goal is to not get caught up in the 'what if's', then negativity can creep in. We're not consequence-driven, we're not results-driven, we are process driven," Britt said.
Top-seeded Cape Fear will host No. 2 Purnell Swett on Thursday with hopes of repeating as United 8 champions. First pitch is scheduled for 6 p.m.
This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: Cape Fear baseball vs Grays’s Creek in playoffs
