Athens entered the three-day tournament with a 7-2 record, but lost all three games to finish in last place. The Jaguars’ (7-5) hardest loss of the weekend was a 9-7 defeat at the hands of Wakefield on Saturday, a game that saw the Wolverines erase an early four-run deficit and score twice in the final inning to win.

“It’s always good to compete in the Bobby Murray tournament because it’s an honor to be a part of this,” said Athens coach Joey Bell, whose Jaguars have won the prestigious championship in previous seasons.

“In the past we’ve had a lot of success, but this year we did not play well, especially those first two games. We hit the ball okay today but obviously we still gave up more runs than we scored.”

Athens was beaten 11-2 by Cap Seven power Millbrook on Thursday, and then succumbed to Broughton 8-4 on Friday. Fellow Tri-Eight conference foe Cary defeated Broughton 4-3 Saturday after falling to eventual tourney runner-up East Wake 3-0 on Saturday in a noon time game.

The Person County Rockets won the 22nd Bobby Murray with a 2-1 decision over East Wake Saturday night. In the game against Wakefield, Athens led 3-0 five minutes into the game as Ross Snotherly belted a three-run blast, and then Wyatt Medlin scored off a Connor Lucovsky single to give the Jaguars a 4-0 advantage.

Junior pitcher Blair Betts (eight strikeouts) had good control in the first several innings, and the Jaguars power hitters, including Snotherly, Will Smith and Drew Woodall had already knocked Wakefield starter Ryan Brabrand out of the game in the first, forcing Wolverine shortstop Clayton Daniels to assume pitching duties.

To Daniels credit, he gave up just two runs, including a Smith homer in the fourth. Dillon Rudio had tripled and then scored on a Woodall sacrifice fly in the second inning to make the score 5-1.

Wakefield cut the lead to 5-3 in the third, and in the fifth they scored twice more to cut the Athens lead to 6-5. A wild pitch scored the fourth run and then a passed ball set up the fifth run.

“We made some mistakes and just didn’t make the plays we should have made,” Bell said. “Wakefield got the timely hits when they needed them.”

The Wolverines took the lead 7-6 in the top of the sixth inning and forced Betts out of the game. The tying run came when Wakefield called a double steal and the throw to third went into left field. Chris Blankenship scored the go-ahead run on J.P. Riggleman’s sac fly off of relief pitcher Gerritt Van Genderen.

To the Jags credit, they tied the game 7-7 in the bottom of the sixth when Snotherly scored on a wild pitch, but they were denied the eighth run when Medlin was thrown out at home plate on an attempted Woodall sac fly.

The first four Wolverine batters singled in the seventh, with Trever Schock and Will Butler scoring the eighth and ninth runs and handing Van Genderen a tough loss. Blankenship was the winning pitcher.

“We kept chipping away and then got those big plays there in the last couple innings,” Wakefield coach Ed Hall said.

Cary (4-7) also was involved in a close contest Saturday. The Imps came out on top of the Caps after falling behind 3-2 in the fifth inning.

Cary scored twice in the sixth as Kyle Newnam tied the game 3-3 and then a strong base hit by Jeremy Harris scored Josh McCauley for the game winner.

Senior Cal Foshee pitched a complete game for the Imps, picking up 11 strikeouts in the win.