It had been a rough week for everyone associated with the Cary High baseball program, assistant coach Wes Burt said. With head coach Chris Kiec out facing “a personal issue that he has to deal with,” the Imps faced the task of taking on an undefeated Fuquay-Varina team at home Friday night.

But the game against the Bengals was anything but a disappointment to Burt and the Imps. Despite ultimately falling 4-2 , the Imps put forth one of their best performances of the season, mostly inspired to win one for its coach, Burt said.

“We’re missing our coach. He had some personal issues to deal with and he’s going to be back on Wednesday,” Burt said. “But the players had an inspirational message from Principal [Douglas] Thilman the other day about picking it up in coach’s absence and I think the players really took it to heart and really tried to win this one for the coach.”

Cary jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the second inning, as shortstop Hunter Carr hit a single to bring in pitcher Eric Pilecki for the first score of the game.

Fuquay regained the lead in the third inning as rightfielder Aaron Olive and pitcher Travis Bradley both hit run-scoring singles to give Fuquay a 2-1 advantage.

Cary caught a break in the fifth inning to tie the score. Fuquay dropped a pop fly from Cary sophomore rightfielder Nick Kondor, leading to another Imp score and a 2-2 tie heading into the sixth inning.

Burt said the Imps’ pitching performance was one of the best of the season, as it held Fuquay’s talented hitters in check, particularly centerfielder Cameron Conner. Fuquay had scored 14 runs in its previous game against Broughton.

“They’ve got a couple of Division I prospects on their team, they’ve got a couple of guys that are going to be drafted,” Burt said. “Cameron Conner might be one of the five best players in the state, and he went 0-for-3 today. We had a game plan that we were going to go all speed, outside all game long and we stuck to the game plan and that’s what kept us close.”

Though Pilecki would hold the Bengals in check most of the game, he gave up two decisive runs in the seventh inning that gave Fuquay its 13th win of the season and kept the Bengals undefeated. Bradley, who also earned the win on the mound, drove in the decisive third Fuquay run on a sacrifice fly.

Fuquay coach Milton Senter said he was pleased with his team’s pitching in the win, though the team needs to relax and improve its batting.

“We’re just not swinging the bat the way I want to be swinging them right now,” Senter said. “The guys are getting kind of tight. We’ve won 13 in a row now and I think the guys are feeling the pressure of the streak. We’re kind of playing not to lose instead of playing to win and you can’t play like that.”

According to Cary’s Pilecki, Fuquay was likely motivated because the Imps won the last three meetings against the Bengals, including two last season that crippled Fuquay’s playoff chances. “We beat them the last three times we played them, so they came to beat us. They wanted to get us back,” Pilecki said.

Despite the loss, Burt said he was proud of the way his team battled through adversity this week and against the still perfect Bengals.

“It’s possible that Fuquay could have blown us off the field in five innings,” Burt said. “But their desire to win one for their coach kept us in it the whole time.”