The race for the Watauga Valley Conference regular season title is going to go down to the wire. The University High Junior Buccaneers made it a three-team race with a 3-2 victory over Unaka on Tuesday evening at Thomas Stadium.
The Bucs (6-3 conference) cannot win the title but can earn a bye and second place with a sweep of the Rangers today at Claude Holsclaw Field. North Greene stands 8-1 in the conference and plays at Hampton in its final conference game.
A loss by the Huskies and a Unaka win puts the Rangers (7-2 conference) in no worse than second place and would get a bye in the first round of the district tournament. If Unaka loses, they will finish third and will lose out on the first round bye.
In this clash, Jack Bembry took the hill for UH and was solid over seven innings of work. He scattered nine hits while striking out five and walking two.
“He did a great job tonight,” Junior Bucs head coach Josh Petty said. “He threw well, and we had one inning where we kicked the ball around a little bit, but outside of that, we played a clean game. Unaka played a good game, and overall, it was just a good baseball game.”
UH got on the scoreboard against Rangers starter John Ramsey in the last of the first as Cas Blevins singled to left and Bembry reached on a bunt single. Hunter Seehorn sacrificed both runners up a base, and Carter Pollack singled to right to plate Blevins for a 1-0 Bucs lead.
The Rangers answered with a run in the top of the second as Bryson Street crushed a two-out double into the right centerfield gap and came around on a single up the middle by Isaac Hill.
The Rangers had other opportunities that went by the boards in the third, fifth and sixth frames.
“We did that all day long,” said Rangers head coach Tee Blevins. “We got them on; we just couldn’t get them in. When they got runners on, they moved them over and got them in for their three runs. John Boy didn’t have his best stuff, but he battled and pitched well enough to win. We hit a lot of first pitch pop outs and ground outs, and we didn’t see enough pitches. We would have liked to stretch him out a little bit more.”
In the third, Unaka got infield singles from Davey Ensor and Dakota Gallimore but Ramsey popped out, and King flew out to right field with both hitters going after first pitches. In the fifth the same situation occurred – again with Ensor and Gallimore aboard – and the Rangers failed to get the big hit.
In the Bucs’ fifth, Jake Oligny walked to open the stanza, and Henry Borthwick bunted him over 90 feet. A.J. Simerly then singled Oligny to third, and Blevins hit a sacrifice fly to left to plate Oligny for a 2-1 UH lead.
In the Unaka sixth, King walked and John Wesley Hardin singled to centerfield. Street reached on an infield hit to load the bases with no outs, and Hill brought home the tying run by reaching on an infield error.
Kyler Lewis tapped back to the mound, and Bembry got the force at the dish and had runners at the corners for Austin Beauprez who missed on a bunt attempt as Hardin was moving from third on a suicide squeeze. He was put out easily at the plate, and Beauprez struck out to end the threat.
Oligny doubled to left to open the seventh for UH and Borthwick bunted him to third, and Simerly’s fly ball to centerfield was deep enough for Oligny to scamper home.

University High 3-2
Unaka 010 001 0 – 2 9 0
UH 100 010 1 – 3 6 2
W – Bembry L – Ramsey
DP – U 1. LOB – U 8, UH 4. 2B – Blevins, Street, Oligny.