Halifax Academy Varsity baseball team traveled to Wilson to play #1 seed Greenfield in the quarter-final round of state playoffs Thursday.
The Vikings played well but lost 11-7. The Vikings were down 1-0 after the 1st inning and kept the game close even taking the lead in the 3rd inning. Greenfield held the Vikings scoreless until the top of the 3rd inning when their bats would come alive. Bradley Myrick would lead off with a single followed by singles from Matthew Wray and Luke Blackman. Greenfield walked the next batter, Ryan Hockaday walking in Myrick tying the game at 1-1. Wray would score on a perfectly executed squeeze play with Collin Smith laying down the perfect bunt. Blackman scored on a single by Ryan Mizelle giving the Vikings a 3-1 lead going into the bottom of the 3rd inning. Greenfield would strike back score 3 runs in the bottom of the 3 and add 4 more in the bottom of the 4th for a 8-3 lead.
The Vikings dug deep and rallied by batting around. Ryan Hockaday started the inning with a double to deep center field followed by back-to-back-to-back singles from Collin Smith, Landon Poole & Ryan Mizelle. Tyler Jomo added a double scoring 2 of the 4 runs making the score 7-8. Greenfield added 2 runs in the bottom of the 5th and added 1 more in the bottom of the 6th for a score 11-7. Vikings could not get any closer ending the game with the 7-11 loss.
Ryan Mizelle started and pitched 5 innings allowing 9 hits, 7 runs, walked 4, & struck out 1. Luke Blackman pitched 1 inning and allowed 3 hits, 4 runs, walked 2, hit 1, and struck out 2. Leading hitters for the Vikings were: Collin Smith, Ryan Mizelle, & Bradley Myrick with 2 singles each, Ryan Hockaday & Tyler Jomo with a double each, Matthew Wray, Luke Blackman, & Landon Poole each with a single.
The Vikings finish the season with a 8-10 record, winning 3 of their last 4 games. This was the last game for the 10 seniors as well as long-time coach Rabbit Long. The seniors are Luke Blackman, Taylor Harris, Ryan Hockaday, Tyler Jomo, Cody Moore, Bradley Myrick, Landon Poole, Collin Smith, Jacob Smith, and Matthew Wray.