By Wayne Hunt

The Lexington Dispatch

In a battle of wasps at Lexington’s Bingham Center on Friday, the Salisbury Hornets stung the Lexington Yellow Jackets with a 9-0 sweep.

The Hornets, which defeated the Yellow Jackets 7-2 earlier season, clinched the Central Carolina Conference championship with the win.

Salisbury’s top two singles players, Spencer Storey and Hunter Carlton, got the visitors off to a hot start and the Hornets continued to roll through Lexington’s young lineup. Storey defeated Austin Cross 6-0, 6-0 while Carlton topped David Wolfe by the same score, highlighting Salisbury’s singles’ performances.

The Hornets swept the other four matches getting wins from David Derrick (6-4, 6-2 over Coleman Hayes), Mathias DeComarmond (6-1, 6-1 over Blake Inabinett), Matt Sukkasem (6-3, 6-0 over Jacob Carlson) and Benjamin Roy (6-3, 6-3 over Seth Worley).

Salisbury coach Milton Griffith praised his team’s group effort after the match.

“Our guys stepped up as a whole today,” Griffith said. “They took a couple of matches from us the last time, but we played hard and focused today and it’s helping us build some momentum as we get close to the conference and regional tournaments,.”

Salisbury also swept the doubles matches to complete the 9-0 victory. Doubles winners for Salisbury were Storey/Derrick (8-3 over Cross/Hayes), Carlton/DeComarmond (8-3 over Wolfe/Inabinett) and Sukkasem/Roy (8-4 over Carlson/Worley).

Lexington coach Varner Sink, despite the loss was pleased with his team’s effort.

“We’re young and they’re really good,” he said. “The scores don’t reflect it but we had a lot of good rallies and some good play today. This match will help us get ready for East Davidson on Monday.”

The Hornets improved to 11-1 overall, 9-0 in Central Carolina Conference and will wrap up the regular season Monday at home against West Davidson.

 

Lexington drops to 7-5 overall and 7-2 in conference play. The Yellow Jackets will host East Davidson in their regular season finale Monday.

Due to recent rainy weather, the Central Carolina Conference tournament has been pushed back to aTuesday start.