By Brian Pitts
Davie Enterprise Record

The Ellis baseball team tried in vain to spoil North Davidson’s perfect season and win the conference tournament, losing 3-1 in a final that featured the 1-2 seeds. But the Jaguars gave coach Mike Dinkins many reasons to smile this season.
They finished 13-4, carrying an eight-game winning streak into the championship game of the Davidson-Davie Conference Tournament. Ellis went 12-2 in the final 14 games, and both losses were to a North team that went 17-0.
The game was held at North Davidson High School.
“It was a great year,” Dinkins said. “It was a great bunch of kids. The high school is getting some really good ballplayers out of this group. I could see five or six of them easily playing varsity ball (in the future).”
The Jaguars kept it close by throwing out three runners at the plate. Catcher Cody Hendrix had a busy night. He tagged out a runner during a bunt play. He tagged out a runner after a relay from left fielder Cameron Thomas to third baseman Jesse Draughn. And he tagged out a runner after a throw from first baseman Guy Brunelli.
In Ellis’ eyes, there should have been four putouts at home. With runners at second and third in the North fourth, Austin Beck singled to left. Thomas fired to Hendrix, who appeared to tag the runner in time. Safe, however, was the call as North bumped its lead from 1-0 to 3-0.
“Cody played great,” Dinkins said. “There were four plays at the plate and he made all of them. One of them didn’t go our way.”
In the sixth, Ellis rallied and put the tying run in scoring position. Draughn got a leadoff walk. He moved to second on a wild pitch. He took third on an error and scored when Jacob Byrd’s grounder to second was errored. With one out, Ellis had runners at second and third with the meat of the order at the plate.
Beck, however, struck out two batters to end the threat. He struck out four in two innings to get the save. Peyton Bennett was the winner, giving up two hits in five innings …