KINSTON — Facing elimination four times didn’t faze the Cary Bulls as they captured their fourth Junior American Legion state championship in eight years by beating Mooresville Post 66 5-2 on Sunday night at Grainger Stadium.

Nolan Poythress’ four RBIs and a solid pitching effort by Gerrit VanGenderen and Blair Betts helped the Bulls overpower the Moors.

“He’s been a leader for us all year,” said Bulls coach Ron Powell of Poythress. “I figured this team didn’t know him, so we moved him to down to sixth in the order, thinking that they would pitch to him and they did. He made them pay.”

Poythress started the scoring in the first inning with a single that drove in Wade Woodworth to give the Bulls a quick 1-0 lead. Meanwhile, VanGenderen held Mooresville to one hit through the first 3.2 innings of the game.

The Moors managed a run in the third inning to close the gap to 3-1, but Poythress soon struck again. 

A leadoff single by center fielder Grant Shambley and a walk set up a single by Poythress that drove in two more runs, making the score 5-1.

Betts took the mound over the last three innings and shut the door on the Moors. Powell believes that the Bulls’ success is correlated to their deep pitching arsenal.

“We have depth in pitching. We are an unusual team in that we have a different focus about what we do,” Powell said. “We play more games than anybody else and we are getting those pitchers ready.”

Shambley caught a long flyball to center field for the last out of the game and celebration followed. After the game, Shambley was awarded the MVP trophy.

“It feels awesome right now because we were so close last year,” said Shambley, who had more than 10 hits in the Bulls’ six tournament games. “Everyone on the team played great, and they had to pick someone [for MVP], so I guess they just picked me.”

“He’s just a guy that sets the table,” Powell said. “He’s very worrisome to other teams.”

The Bulls’ championship marks their fourth since Junior Legion began holding a state tournament in 2000.

Tough road to final

While Cary never seemed to be seriously threatened on championship Sunday, the road to get there was long and rocky. 

On Thursday, the Bulls faced a tough Pineville team. Pineville’s stout defense contained Cary’s offense, which averages 10 runs per game. The final result was a 2-1 squeaker that the Bulls pulled out in extra innings.

In the second game of the double-elimination tournament, the Bulls fell to Rowan 4-3. Despite five errors by Rowan, Cary couldn’t come up with the hits to pull off the win. 

Things were looking bleak for the Bulls when they were tied in another low-scoring game with Rocky Mount on Saturday. Cary caught a few breaks and David Hamm drove in Shambley on a single in the top of the seventh to give the Bulls a 3-2 win.

“We pulled together right when we had to,” Shambley said. “After we lost to Rowan the first time, we played the best since then. We just put it together at the right time this year.”

“We had good competition,” said Bulls catcher Anthony Colantino. “In the first game we had 12 fly ball outs. Later on, we started hitting line drives, getting more guys on base and scoring more runs.”

Finally, the Bulls hit their stride on Saturday night after demolishing Rowan 11-1 in five innings.

“We’ve been playing doubleheaders every Saturday and every Sunday and in the West they don’t do that,” Powell said. “So when it hits the doubleheader format like it was today. Our guys now are just getting loose.”

And the Bulls remained loose on Sunday as they rolled over Cherryville 7-0 behind the arm of Jake Milinichik, who pitched a complete game for Cary.

Even though they were fresh off a victory, Cary players already had their sights set on next year.

“Winning the state championship the first year I’ve been here was just amazing because now we have to go back and do it again,” Bulls infielder Matt Ruth said. “I’m pretty sure we can do it next year too.”