ALL-COUNTY BASEBALL

West Wilkes won the Mountain Valley Athletic Conference regular season championship and East Wilkes won the MVAC tournament championship — as a No. 8 seed no less. And all four schools made the North Carolina High School Athletic Association state playoffs. All those great performances made selecting the Wilkes Journal-Patriot’s All-County baseball team tough. For the second-straight year, Wilkes Central’s Tanner Waddell takes home the Wilkes Journal-Patriot’s Pitcher of the Year honors. The Wilkes Central senior was perfect on the bump for the second-straight spring with a 6-0 record. In addition to being named the MVAC’s Pitcher of the Year, the Surry Community College-signee sported a 1.39 earned run average in 11 appearances. Waddell allowed just nine earned runs the entire spring for the Eagles. At the plate, Waddell batted .319 and drove in 25 runs. “Tanner pitched the big games for us and is a very hard worker. He’s very coachable and a disciplined player,” Wilkes Central Head Coach Terry Johnson said. The two players who were named the Wilkes Journal-Patriot’s Co-hitters of the Year, Wilkes Central’s Skylar Brooks and West Wilkes’ Alex Ortiz, also happened to be their respective teams’ table-setters. They were also selected to the North Carolina Baseball Coaches Association’s 2A all-state team. As Central’s leadoff hitter, Brooks batted a county-best .569, scored 38 runs and was 24-for-25 on stolen base attempts. Brooks belted a team-high seven home runs and led the Eagles in hits (41) and doubles (14). He was also third on the Eagles in runs batted in with 24. The MVAC’s Player of the Year also made 10 appearances on the mound, went 3-0 with a pair of saves and struck out 38 batters. “Skylar has become a talented, smart, mature, hard-nosed and humble player,” said Johnson. “He’s exciting to watch and is such a clutch player.” Ortiz batted .488 and sported a .566 on-base percentage. He was also the Blackhawks’ top base stealer with 41 thefts this spring and scored 37 runs while he finished with 18 RBIs. The junior also had more doubles (nine) than strikeouts (six), drew 17 walks and was also named to his second all-MVAC team this spring. On defense, Ortiz committed just 12 errors in 105 chances. “As Alex went, our team went. He was the most dangerous player in our conference on the bases and was a stellar leadoff,” West Wilkes Head Coach Drew Ward said. “His error count was good but he made a few errors on balls that other shortstops wouldn’t have even had a play on.” All-County team Like a traditional lineup, the All-County baseball team has nine first team selections in addition to the Hitters and Pitcher of the year. In all, West Wilkes led the way with five selections while Wilkes Central had four selections. North Wilkes and East Wilkes had two and one selections, respectively. All 12 selections were named to the All-MVAC first team this spring. First Team East Wilkes (8-17, 3-11 MVAC) The East Wilkes Cardinals made some serious noise in the MVAC tournament when it won their first tournament title since 1998 and earned a home game in the 1A state playoffs. Shortstop Bryce Vestal certainly did his part for the Cardinals throughout the spring. The junior hit .405 with two home runs and 13 RBIs and led his team in slugging percentage at .676. On the mound, Vestal made 13 appearances with a 4.51 ERA in 31 innings of work. “Bryce was our best all-around player this season. He does a great job of running our defense from the shortstop position,” East Wilkes Head Coach Bradley Hayes said. “His bat has a lot of pop and he did a much better job this year of being patient and seeing his pitches. I think Bryce will have a really good senior year.” North Wilkes (9-13, 6-8) The Vikings returned to the state playoffs for the first time in four years and hosted a conference tournament game thanks to the contributions from a young group of players. Justus Dancy emerged as the team’s ace as he pitched a team-high 55 innings and sported a 4.58 ERA. The junior finished 3-7 with 50 strikeouts. At the plate, Dancy batted .361, drove in a team-high 15 runs with 26 hits. “Justus was our ace on the mound and one of our top hitters at the plate,” North Wilkes Head Coach Dwayne Berrier said. “He was asked to pitch against some of our toughest opponents and hit in the three or four spot throughout the season.” Teammate Daniel Pruitt tied Dancy for the team-high in hits with 26 and hit the Vikings’ only home run this season. The senior hit .351 with 13 RBIs and scored a team-high 22 runs. “Daniel was our go-to player and team leader,” said Berrier. “He was asked to play multiple positions and did an excellent job wherever he was placed — one of the best hitters in the conference in my opinion.” West Wilkes (16-10, 12-2 MVAC) The Blackhawks captured their second MVAC regular season title in three years with a good mix of solid pitching and potent offense. The 1-2 combo of junior Dalton Blankenship and senior Logan Petty e

ALL-COUNTY BASEBALL

Photo Credit: Wilkes Journal-Patriot

Contact Us