It took a while for Scotland’s baseball team to find its identity.
Now the Fighting Scots are trying to prove that the wait was worth it.
Scotland won its last four regular-season conference games, sweeping a pair of games against Lumberton before taking both sides of a home-and-away rivalry duel with Richmond. The Scots finished with a 9-5 record in Sandhills Athletic Conference play.
After a 7-2 victory over the Raiders on Thursday in Laurinburg, senior Austin Norton said the Scots have learned how to play as a team.
“I feel like we’re gelling a little bit more,” Norton said. “Everything’s coming together. Everything’s going good in practice.”
The Scots are wrapping up the regular season this week by competing in the Beach Diamond Invitational at West Brunswick High School. The Raiders are also competing in the tournament, but results from the Invitational won’t have an impact on conference standings.
Scotland defeated Northern Guilford 4-2 in its tournament opener on Monday, a team that is 13-6 and in a tie for first place in the 3A Mid-State Conference.
Scotland will host Purnell Swett in the first round of the conference tournament, which will happen after students return from spring break. The teams split their two regular-season meetings. The Rams won 5-2 on the road in extra innings, and Scotland defeated Purnell Swett 11-10 in Pembroke.
The win in Pembroke improved Scotland’s overall record to 2-4. The Scots had lost their first four games of the season, including a pair of games in Wilmington against Ashley and E.A. Laney.
The team has come a long way since then.
“It’s very much a cliche. It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish,” head coach Chad Hill said. “When you’re dealing with 15- to 18-year-olds, that’s easier said than done. They’re looking at the record. We lose two in one day (in Wilmington), and then we play a great Jack Britt team and go 0-3, and then lose in extra innings (to Purnell Swett) to go 0-4.
“A lot of teams can definitely hang their head, but our guys came out to practice, stayed in the weight room, worked hard every day. It’s nice to see them climbing and peaking when you want to be.”
