Ashe baseball beats North Wilkes, drops game to Mt. Airy

HAYS — The Ashe County varsity baseball team began its spring sports season with two games last week. Ashe scored a 15-4 victory at North Wilkes on Feb. 28 before dropping a 4-3 decision at Mt. Airy on March 1.

In the season opener against the Vikings, the Huskies held a slim 4-3 lead before exploding for 11 runs in the top of the sixth inning.

Freshman Jordan Tibbs had a huge game in his first high school contest, finishing the day with three hits and a team-high five runs knocked in. He also scored two runs of his own in the victory. Drew Cheek added two hits and an RBI, Brodie Burgess had a hit and knocked in a run, Luke Gilley had a hit, scored a run and knocked in a pair of runs and Canyon Pennington finished with a hit, a run scored and two RBIs. Sam Tibbs had a hit and an RBI, Colin Estes scored twice, Kye Pennington had a hit and scored three times, Gracen Cline knocked in a run and Cody Hamm finished with a hit and a run scored. Junior Hayden Jenkins led Ashe with four runs scored.

On the mound, Canyon Pennington picked up the win, pitching 2.1 innings and striking out six North Wilkes batters. The senior allowed two runs on one hit and two walked batters. Sam Tibbs pitched 2.2 innings and struck out four batters. He allowed one run on one hit and one walk. Hamm pitched an inning and struck out one batter. The senior allowed one run on one walk and no hits allowed.

In Wednesday’s showdown at Mt. Airy, the Huskies held a 3-1 lead before the Granite Bears scored three times in the bottom of the fifth inning to rally for the 4-3 victory.

Ashe County (1-1) will travel to East Wilkes on Wednesday and Starmount on Friday.

JV Baseball

The junior varsity baseball team is off to a 2-0 start to the season. Ashe cruised to an 11-1 victory at North Wilkes on Feb. 28 and then followed that up with a 9-1 win at Mt. Airy on March 1.