Trinity falls to W. Davidson in CCC baseball final

THOMASVILLE – Not much tipped Trinity's way in seeking its first conference tournament title in years.

The top-seeded Bulldogs built a slim lead early but couldn't fend off third-seeded West Davidson in the middle innings in falling 13-4 on Thursday at Finch Field in the Central Carolina 3A Conference baseball tournament championship.

"We played hard all night. We just didn't execute very well at all," Trinity coach Ryan Spencer said. "As far as pitching goes, we've got to fill the zone up a little bit better – we had 12 free 90s. But they were competing. I mean, they don't want to do that.

"Then at the plate, we created a lot of opportunities. We had a lot of runners all night long. We just needed a two-out hit here and there. A guy would hit a line drive really hard and it'd be right at somebody. But the attitude, energy, effort of the guys was amazing all night."

Peyton Williams homered for the Bulldogs (19-7), coming off their first regular season conference championship since a three-way tie in 2013 and their first outright conference title since the early 1990s.

Grayson Fauber, Indiana Hill and Cohen Wolfe each had a hit and an RBI as Trinity built a 2-0 lead through three innings but struggled as the Green Dragons, who won three of the previous four CCC titles, surged over the last four.

West scored six runs in a 10-batter fourth, tacked on another run in the fifth, four more in the sixth and finally two in the seventh. Bulldogs pitchers issued seven walks and hit five batters – mostly during the latter innings.

And the Green Dragons capitalized in key moments.

"They executed and we didn't when we needed to," Spencer said. "Tonight they just played baseball better than we played baseball. But I'm proud they didn't let up, didn't give up. They worked their butt off. They were loud in the dugout all night from start to finish, even down nine. It was just a tough night for us."

West loaded the bases with one out in the fourth, then drew a hit-by-pitch and singled down the right-field line to score two. After loading the bases again and plating a run on a grounder, it tripled to right-center to score two more.

Another hit-by-pitch with the bases loaded in the fifth scored a run.

The Green Dragons put two on with one out in the sixth. A single and a double each scored a run and a single to left-center scored two. West added a pair of RBI singles in the seventh to pull away even more.

Lincoln Coble took the pitching loss, striking out three in 4 1/3 innings. Mason Miller, in a solid start, got the win with two strikeouts in six innings.

Nicholas Tierney had four hits, including a double, and two RBIs for West (16-8), which split its regular season series with Trinity – winning 12-1 after losing 2-1 two weeks ago. Tyson Walters had two hits, including a triple, and three RBIs.