A NEW RIVAL.
Gavin Barber showed up big Thursday night by throwing a no hitter, and turning around with the bat for the game winning hit. Relieved by Russ, Smith-Tilley and Gillespie for a combined 1 hitter, Barber was huge with the bat, along with Tanner Waugh securing the Mooresville win on the road vs Hickory Ridge 5-4.
What a difference a year makes. The Mooresville Blue Devils baseball team has had a significant turn around from last season. After a rough start they managed to find their way as time ran out on 2024.
A slightly similar situation started the 2025 season but there was light, light at the end of the tunnel. Even after suffering losses against West Rowan and West Iredell, something changed, and it changed in a big way. They were 5-5 and it was one way or the other. The question was which way would it be?
Hickory Ridge’s plan was simple and it was come to Mooresville, beat them again for the 2nd straight time on the season, similar to recent history, and continue to be on top of the new found rivalry between the two schools. But would it happen?
Hickory Ridge and Mooresville baseball have turned in to a huge rivalry. It all really begin to get heated from a bench clearing skirmish a few years ago after a play at the plate. Imagine that, two baseball teams having differences of the result of player being called out at home. After the dust settled resulting from players being suspended and learning some grave lessons, ever since, each game in this series has been full of emotion and hard-fought intensity.
A gritty Mooresville team led by senior Luke Modrak wasn’t having any of it on this visit by the Ragin’ Bulls of Hickory Ridge. He knocked an early home run to take the lead for Mooresville. Followed by some small ball and big hits from Southern Smith-Tilley and Gavin Barber both producing RBI’s. Modrak again came through with some clever base running and scored again followed by Tanner Waugh with a big hit as well. Connor Robertson scored making the total 5 runs for the blue devils which was too much for Hickory Ridge to overcome. Mooresville wins at home 5-4 paving the way for the remainder of the season.
Since that point in time Mooresville has won 14-16 games and are one of the hottest teams in the state. They took down Alexander Central and also had big wins home and away versus their cross-town rival Lake Norman.
After a Tuesday win vs. West Cabarrus, and the Ragin’ Bulls win over Lake Norman, propelled the blue devils in to a conference championship game against Hickory Ridge.
The blue devils were the away team and conveniently playing at the Hickory Ridge field. Every year the tournament site is pre-chosen well before it takes place. The blue devils needed to start fast and fast they did. Luke Modrak and Southern Smith-Tilley each had hits and along came Tanner Waugh. Waugh got a hold of a fast ball and smacked it over the left field fence making it a quick 3-0 lead for the Mooresville Blue Devils quieting the Ragin’ Bulls crowd. Mooresville high school had a quite a large showing for this tournament final and cheered ecstatically for the early lead. Waugh’s huge 3 RBI blast set the tone in a big way for Mooresville.
For the next few innings, the battle turned in to a war. Gavin Barber was the starting pitcher for Mooresville and was stellar all night. He no hit the Ragin Bulls through 5 innings and was forced to come out due to pitch count. We all felt Barber could have lasted 12 innings by himself for he was getting stronger each inning. In addition, he was very vocal and full of emotion as he struck out 8 batters in those 5 innings and consistently shut down Hickory Ridge. Not only did Barber do it on the mound, he did it with the bat, having 2 doubles on the night along with 2 runs batted in.
Mooresville did not have much success with the bat since the first inning and the word in the dugout all night was “we need more runs”. The sixth inning didn’t bring much of a change for Mooresville having left men on base and came up scoreless.
And then the wheels came off… the bottom of the sixth was a tough inning for the blue devils. Depending on your point of view about the strike zone, at the end of the day the score book showed a total of 5 walks given up by Mooresville, on 1 hit in that 6th inning. The Ragin Bulls scored 2 runs courtesy of walks and then the dreaded texas leaguer bloop hit to left field scoring 2 more runs was the death blow. This made the score 4-3 Hickory Ridge and the ghosts of the past on this field were beginning to haunt the blue devils in to another possible loss to this team.
The top of the 7th brought new hope mentally for the Mooresville Blue Devils. The football side of Gavin Barber came out with a lot of loud words for the team about being able to win this game. The energy in the Mooresville dugout was big and Luke Modrak got on base fast for Mooresville. Followed by a key at bat base on balls for Southern Smith-Tilley. Modrak and Tilley had worked their way over to second and third on a passed ball by Hickory Ridge. Then the lumberjack showed up for Mooresville. Gavin Barber. Barber was having none it and a defeat to the hands of Hickory Ridge was not on his or any blue devil players mind this evening. They fed up a hanging curve ball to the big man and he knocked it (see photo) in to the furthest spot in the park that wasn’t a home run. This scored two runs even though Hickory Ridge was quick on the relay. There was some confusion on the throw for the Hickory Ridge crowd, announcers, and coaching staff all screaming that the Mooresville runner jumped over the plate and never touched it. It is always understandable to make such a mistake because the Mooresville runner Smith-Tilley did have to leap over the runner before him and did so after stepping on home plate (see photo). Both runs counted making the score 5-4 Mooresville on a dramatic 2 RBI double by Gavin Barber.
The game was not over and Mooresville still had to withstand the run Hickory Ridge was going to bring in the bottom of the seventh inning. Mooresville turned to closer KJ Gillespie and put the tournament in his hands. Gillespie handled the meat of the Ragin Bulls order and made the pitches he needed to make for Mooresville to get the win. The defense was stellar all night especially by Luke Modrak with some great plays at shortstop. Gillespie had 2 strikeouts in that last inning to shut down Hickory Ridge. In the true fashion of pressure in baseballs final inning, upon each two-strike count Gillespie had on a batter with 2 outs, the Mooresville crowd stood to cheer on the impending final out. The atmosphere was similar to a major league game when the crowd can feel victory and begins to recognize the athletes on the field. In the cruelty of the game of baseball and its sudden defeat, tonight went Mooresville’s way as that final strike 3 resulted in the last out and a Blue Devil victory.
Although next season Hickory Ridge and Mooresville will no longer be in the same conference, we suspect there will be further matchups in non conference and playoffs to continue the madness.
We suspect the NCHSAA state playoffs will begin for Mooresville Tuesday night at Mooresville High School listed as a 6:30PM start vs cross town rival Lake Norman.
This will bring up the long-spoken topic of whether it is fair to play two conference teams in round 1 of the state playoffs. Every year it is discussed and debated over and it appears once again this year it will have the same fate. At the time of writing this article we are making a prediction of this match-up for it is not yet finalized.
Box score available:
Photography done by Matt Schiller & Kami Bodine.
Player audio interviews are below:
Luke Modrak
Gavin Barber
Tanner Waugh
KJ Gillespie
Coach Tyler Lackey
Manager Andrew Martin
ONE MILLION PHOTOS STRONG
Open Every Day. Iredell County – – Mooresville, NC 28117
