Uwharrie Charter Academy baseball coach Rob Shore talks to his team before Friday night’s Class 1A game in the state playoffs at Cherryville. (PJ Ward-Brown / Randolph Record)
CHERRYVILLE – Uwharrie Charter Academy is back in another Class 1A West Region baseball finals and there’s a familiar tone.
The opponent for this week’s best-of-3 finals is Eastern Randolph, a rival in the Piedmont Athletic Conference.
Both teams won fourth-round road games Friday night to keep their seasons going. One of them will play in the state championship series later this month.
“Our guys are resilient,” UCA coach Rob Shore said. “As the (season) was getting toward the end, the seniors realized, ‘Hey guys, this is it.’ They’ve turned it up a different notch.”
The regional finals matchup marks a rematch from 2023, when UCA won on its way to the first of back-to-back state titles.
UCA (16-11) will be home for Game 1 and, if necessary, Game 3. Eastern Randolph (15-12-1) has played on its home field only once in the postseason.
During the regular season, UCA won 16-0 at Eastern Randolph and then 3-2 in 11 innings at home in a pair of April games.
“A familiar foe, right down the road,” Shore said.
Logun Wilkins pitched six innings and Jake Hunter had three hits in fifth-seeded UCA’s 6-4 victory at top-seeded Cherryville on Friday night.
“When you’re playing a No. 1 seed like this and your on their territory, you know it’s going to be a fight,” Shore said.
Grat Dalton drove in two runs and Jose Ramirez scored two runs for the Eagles. Brett Smith pitched the ninth.
“Around the fourth inning, I started to pound it and they couldn’t really touch it after that,” Wilkins said.
The Eagles have been better with the bats lately.
“Since the playoffs have started, we’ve been getting huge two-out hits,” Shore said. “We had people in scoring position every single inning. … Right now, if we can just stay consistent with our hitting, we’re going to be hard to beat.”
Also last week, UCA knocked off fourth-seeded North Stokes 9-2 in the first of road games on back-to-back nights.
Dalton racked up four hits and scored four runs, Alex Carver and Brody Engle both knocked in two runs and Jake Hunter pitched six innings.
“The last two games, we’ve been hitting the ball really well,” Wilkins said. “It’s just nice to have those extra runs.”
** On Friday, No. 15 seed Eastern Randolph topped third-seeded Christ the King 6-4, with Lucas Smith driving in two runs and Chance Holdaway scoring two runs.
Bryson Marley pitched 6 2/3 innings for the victory before Smith recorded the final out on the mound.
Class 2A
Randleman’s season ended when seventh-seeded West Stanly scored two six-inning runs to clip the host Tigers 2-1 on Friday night.
Sixth-seeded Randleman (20-6) scored in the first inning. Starting pitcher John Kirkpatrick took a shutout to the sixth, allowing one hit and four walks before he was charged with one run. Jake Riddle took the loss in relief.
West Stanly moved to the best-of-3 regional finals against top-seeded East Rutherford.
