Baseball Team Loses in Upper State; Also Individual Boys Tennis

The SJCS baseball team's season ended with a 14-13 loss at Dixie in an elimination game of the Class 1A Upper State Tournament on Saturday.

The Knights lost their first game in the tournament, 7-3 against visiting Southside Christian on Friday night.

Against the Sabres, St. Joe's led 2-1 after four innings behind the solid pitching of junior left-hander J.P. Rambo, who went five innings and allowed four runs, only one of which was earned. He gave up three hits, struck out four and walked four.

The Knights scored single runs in the third and fourth innings against SCS sophomore left-hander and Wake Forest commit Carson Boleman, who struck out 16 in 5 1/3 innings.

In the third, walks to Nolan Green and Harrison Zinkann, a passed ball and a wild pitch enabled Green to score and make it 1-1. In the fourth, Johnny Jaraczewski reached on a dropped third strike, went to second on an error and scored on a two-out single to center by Cole Alt, giving the Knights a 2-1 lead.

The Sabres went back in front with three runs in the top of the fifth and added three more in the sixth to make it 7-3. The Knights scored a run in their half of the sixth on a solo homer by Jaraczewski.

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On Saturday at Dixie, the Knights scored six runs in the top of the fourth inning to take a 13-4 lead, but the Hornets began their comeback with three runs in the bottom of the inning. They struck for seven runs in the sixth to take the lead and held on in the seventh.

Jackson Campbell had a home run, drove in two runs and scored three, Ben McKay had three hits and knocked in two runs and Zinkann had two RBIs and scored three runs. Alt and Sam Utecht each had two RBIs.

The Knights finished with a record of 12-14-1 and won a second straight district championship.

Boys Tennis

Freshman Whit Wilkins made a good showing in the Class 3A/2A/1A individual boys tennis state tournament, knocking off a seeded player before losing a pair of close matches.

Wilkins defeated eighth-seeded Luke Rector of Union County 8-6. He then lost in the double-elimination tournament against Daniel's Nolan Garrett in a tiebreaker, 8-7 (4); and against seventh-seeded Nathan Meade of Clinton in the consolation bracket, 8-5.

"He played great and fought till the end," Knights Coach Ken Arp said. "I'm really proud of him. His last match was his best of the season. He had a great year."