The Lee County pitcher hit a walk-off solo home run over the center field wall in the bottom of the seventh inning to give the Yellow Jackets a 4-3 victory over Tri-9 Conference rival Apex in the NCHSAA 4-A East Regional semifinals on Wednesday night.
The win will now advance the Yellow Jackets, winners of eight straight, to their first regional final since 2001 when they won their second state championship in a five-year span.
Lee County (16-10) will play at Laney (16-8) in the East Regional final in a best-of-three series to determine a spot in the state championship of the NCHSAA 4-A state baseball tournament. The first game is scheduled for 7 p.m. Friday. On Saturday, there will be a possible double-header with the second game of the series being played in the afternoon. Should there be a third game, it will be played Saturday night. All three games will be played at Laney High School.
Frye, who also threw a complete game on the mound, was facing a 2-1 count with two outs when he knocked the ball well over 400 feet out of the park to lift Lee County to the victory.
“How deserving is this for Dillon after everything he’s done for us all season?” said Lee County head coach Charlie Spivey. “That’s a heck of a way for him to end the biggest game of the year on a home run. I couldn’t be happier for him and my guys.”
On the mound, Frye had 12 strikeouts and allowed just five hits.
“I couldn’t have done it if we didn’t put runs on the board,” said Frye. “I’m proud of my teammates. This is an awesome feeling. We’ve just got to take care of business against Laney now. They’re just like any other team and we’ve got to keep doing what we’ve been doing.”
Lee County took a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the second when Garrett Verrilli hit a two-run home run, which also scored Patrick Oldham. The Yellow Jackets added to the lead with sophomore Nick Durazo’s RBI single, which scored Frye, to make the score 3-0 after three.
Apex’s 3-0 deficit was its largest deficit in the postseason since trailing 4-1 at Athens Drive in the second round. The Cougars (14-11) turned things around and responded in both games.
Against Athens Drive, the Cougars bounced back to win. Against the Yellow Jackets, Apex rallied with a three-run outburst in the sixth inning to tie it up at 3 thanks to an RBI single from Austin Winstead. The Cougars added two more runs from Keaton Oates and Ben Sherri to even things up.
“It was a huge wave of emotion,” said Spivey. “At first, we were in control of this game and then Apex rallies back like that. I think we gave into the emotion a little bit but we rebounded with a big home run. All of these kids are deserving of this. This is great for them.”
Read more: Sanford Herald - Frye lifts Lee County into regional finals
The win will now advance the Yellow Jackets, winners of eight straight, to their first regional final since 2001 when they won their second state championship in a five-year span.
Lee County (16-10) will play at Laney (16-8) in the East Regional final in a best-of-three series to determine a spot in the state championship of the NCHSAA 4-A state baseball tournament. The first game is scheduled for 7 p.m. Friday. On Saturday, there will be a possible double-header with the second game of the series being played in the afternoon. Should there be a third game, it will be played Saturday night. All three games will be played at Laney High School.
Frye, who also threw a complete game on the mound, was facing a 2-1 count with two outs when he knocked the ball well over 400 feet out of the park to lift Lee County to the victory.
“How deserving is this for Dillon after everything he’s done for us all season?” said Lee County head coach Charlie Spivey. “That’s a heck of a way for him to end the biggest game of the year on a home run. I couldn’t be happier for him and my guys.”
On the mound, Frye had 12 strikeouts and allowed just five hits.
“I couldn’t have done it if we didn’t put runs on the board,” said Frye. “I’m proud of my teammates. This is an awesome feeling. We’ve just got to take care of business against Laney now. They’re just like any other team and we’ve got to keep doing what we’ve been doing.”
Lee County took a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the second when Garrett Verrilli hit a two-run home run, which also scored Patrick Oldham. The Yellow Jackets added to the lead with sophomore Nick Durazo’s RBI single, which scored Frye, to make the score 3-0 after three.
Apex’s 3-0 deficit was its largest deficit in the postseason since trailing 4-1 at Athens Drive in the second round. The Cougars (14-11) turned things around and responded in both games.
Against Athens Drive, the Cougars bounced back to win. Against the Yellow Jackets, Apex rallied with a three-run outburst in the sixth inning to tie it up at 3 thanks to an RBI single from Austin Winstead. The Cougars added two more runs from Keaton Oates and Ben Sherri to even things up.
“It was a huge wave of emotion,” said Spivey. “At first, we were in control of this game and then Apex rallies back like that. I think we gave into the emotion a little bit but we rebounded with a big home run. All of these kids are deserving of this. This is great for them.”
Read more: Sanford Herald - Frye lifts Lee County into regional finals