Southwest Guilford wins Piedmont Triad Tournament Title in a pitchers’ dual: Orth vs. Dickerson

Courtesy of Mike Ellis from the Jamestown News…..

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 R H E

SW Guilford 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 – 2 5 1
East Forsyth 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 – 1 3 3

It was an old fashioned pitchers’ duel in the finals of the Piedmont Triad
Conference Tournament tonight. On the hill for East Forsyth, the number one seed
and the home team, was senior Shane Dickerson. His counterpart for the number two
seed Southwest Guilford was freshman Matt Orth.

East struck first in the bottom of the first. Leadoff hitter Luke Dunlap hit a 1 –
1 pitch off the centerfield wall at the 385′ mark for a double. The next batter,
Evan Orenstein followed with a solid single to center to score Dunlap with the first
run of the night. Two batters…two hits and a run…it looked like it might not be
Orth’s night. Nothing could be further from the truth. East would not score again
and would only get one more hit, a leadoff double by Landon O’Dell in the fourth
inning.

On the other side, Dickerson was dealing. He gave up a walk in the second and a
single to Cal Sutphin in the third, but neither runner advanced past first. With a
1 – 0 lead going into the top of the fourth, Dickerson’s defense let him down. With
two outs, Elliot Slack got on board on an error by the second baseman. Davis Inman
followed with a great 11 pitch at bat before sending a line drive single to right
field. When the ball got by the right fielder, Slack came all the way around to
score and Inman ended up at third. Kyle Miller then singled to drive in Inman with
what turned out to be the winning run.

Southwest would threaten again in the sixth with one out singles by Orth and Slack
to put runners on first and second. Dickerson then struck out the next two batters
to get out of the inning.

Leading 2 – 1, East threatened in the bottom of the sixth. Evan Orenstein struck
out, but got to first when the ball got by the catcher and his throw was wild to
first. Orth struck out the next two batters but a stolen base and a wild pitch sent
Orenstein to third. Garrett Robinson walked bringing Casey Starbuck to the plate.
With the count 3 – 1, Starbuck sent a line drive to the deepest part of the ballpark
in dead center. Centerfielder Kyle Miller sprinted back and made the catch for the
final out of the inning to end the threat.

Having thrown 102 pitches after six innings, Orth went out in the seventh and was at
his best. He struck out the side to give him 17 strike outs on the night and seal
the victory for his team as Southwest wrapped up the PTC Tournament title with a 2 –
1 win. Orth got the complete game victory, allowing only three hits (two in the
first inning) and giving up 2 walks to go along with his 17 strikeouts.

Dickerson took the loss but pitched very well in defeat. He gave up 5 hits and two
unearned runs, walked one and struck out 11 batters.

Because they were the regular season champions, East Forsyth will get the number one
seed from the PTC and will be at home to face the Dudley Panthers on Friday night.
Southwest Guilford, as the number two seed from the conference will also be at home
and will take on the Southeast Guilford Falcons.