Coach BillKesler’s Cavaliers scored two runs in the last of the seventh-inning without hitting a ball out of the infield for a come-from-behind 7-6 victory over Central Carolina Conference rival Ledford at the North field.

North, 21-5 and ranked second in the state among 2A teams, scored the game-winner on a one-out, bases-loaded suicide squeeze by sophomore Brandon Doby.

Southwestern Randolph (20-8), an 8-4 winner over West Lincoln last night, will visit North at 7 p.m. Friday in the state semifinals.

Ledford, now 14-13, was attempting to pull off a major upset in the third round of the playoffs against a foe that had defeated the Panthers easily three times already.

North found itself down 6-5 entering the last of the seventh after a disastrous top half of the inning.

Cass Jarrett made sure the Cavaliers didn’t stay down a run. After Brad Canipe was hit by a pitch and took second on a passed ball and Daniel Moore followed with a bunt single, runners were at first and third when Jarrett came to the plate.

“I just wanted to make sure that I hit the ball, because either way, no matter if I hit it in the air or hit it on the ground, I knew somebody would score,” said Jarrett.

Canipe scored, and pitcher DanielMoore’s courtesy runner, Michael Smith, raced from first to third on Jarrett’s grounder.

Coach Kevin Gillespie of Ledford then chose to have pitcher Travis Motsinger walk Tad Ogg and Phillip Goodman to load the bases, setting up a force play at home or a possible inning-ending double play.

North’s Kesler foiled that strategy when he called the suicide squeeze play on a 2-1 pitch, but he wasn’t sure Doby saw the signal.

“If we were ahead in the count, we were going to squeeze bunt the whole way. Brandon did not know the squeeze sign, so I told him what the squeeze sign was. ... Most squeeze signs you’ve got some way that the batter signals back to you ... that he’s actually squeezing so this runner doesn’t come down through there and he takes a cut and knocks his head off,” explained Kesler.

Smith raced down the third-base line and Doby bunted down the first-base line. The winning run scored easily as first baseman Josh Hamm fielded the ball and tagged Doby.

Doby, who had three-hit Ledford in the CCC Tournament finals in Lexington the previous Wednesday, had lasted only 1 1/3 innings on the mound, falling behind 2-0 before being relieved by Phillip Goodman.

“After that first and second inning, my pitching, I had to come back out and do it for the seniors. They don’t want it to be their last game, and I don’t want it to be my last game,” saidDoby, who doubled twice, scored once and drove in a run in his first two at-bats. He was North’s only player with two hits.

Seniors Moore, Canipe, Nathan Woodburn and Jarrett were celebrating at the end, and Jarrett gave a lot of credit to Doby.

“This whole team fought hard all night, especially Doby. He really came through for us,” said the North outfielder.

Doby, Goodman and Woodburn all pitched for North before Kesler went to his southpaw ace, Moore, with one out and a runner on in the sixth inning. Moore struck out four straight batters before running into trouble with two outs in the seventh.

“That’s the wildest inning I’ve seen,” said the University of North Carolina signee, who has been the winning pitcher in all three of the Cavaliers’ playoff victories, upping his record to 11-2.

“I got in there and threw one away (after a bouncer back to the mound by Chase Adams). Then (catcher) Brad (Canipe) threw another one way (after Eric Harvell’s swinging bunt in front of the plate). Then I throw another one away on the pickoff play. I was just feeling so low,” said Moore.

With Adams at third and Harvell on first, Moore tried to pick off Harvell and threw wild, allowing Adams to score the tying run.

“Coach called it from the dugout,” said Moore. “I just tried to make it too perfect and was too short with in and threw it in the ground (past first baseman Goodman).”

Kesler said, “We talked about holding him. We said, ‘If he strays off, we’ll make the pickoff move and we want to be careful with the runner at third base. ... If the guy takes off to second, we’re just going to let him go. Daniel’s thrown a whole bunch of pickoff moves, and that was probably the worst one he’s ever made right there. Phillip didn’t do a very good job of getting off the base. It was scary and ugly and didn’t look too smart at the time.

“Our best player makes two errors and our senior catcher throws one away, too. They hit the ball a total of about six feet and they get a run out of it. You can’t get much uglier than that,” said Kesler.

“But then it was beautiful in the bottom of that inning.”

When Jarrett’s infield grounder tied the score in the seventh, North knew it would either win it then or go into extra innings with the final at-bat.

“This team always seems to come through. We’re real tight and always stick together.I never thought for a minute that we wasn’t going to be able to pull this off,” said Jarrett.

It was a team effort with four pitchers working on the mound and seven different players getting at least one hit.

“Under the circumstances, it was a great win. You’ve got to give both teams a lot of credit. We had beaten them 24-1 in three games and they had nothing to lose. They were loose as a goose,” said Kesler. “Nobody expected them to go this far anyway. They were just playing as loose as they could, and we were a little tight, especially our pitching staff, I thought. In a one-game series in baseball, anything can happen. There’s a lot of pressure on the team that’s favored.

“Ledford has a good baseball team. ... They’ve got to feel good about the type of game they played. They kept battling, kicking and scratching.”

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