Eastern Wayne wins second straight conference title

By Andrew Stevens
Published in Sports on May 3, 2009 12:11 AM

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Take care of business.

Eastern Wayne bounced back from a sluggish effort against New Hanover on Wednesday and throttled Kinston 18-3 in 4 1/2 innings on Friday evening in New Hope.

The Warriors concluded Eastern Carolina 3-A Conference play and clinched their second consecutive regular season ECC title. Eastern Wayne has gone 18-2 in regular season conference play during the past two years.

"The last two years this bunch right here has gone 18-2 in two years in the conference," Warriors head coach Jabo Fulghum said. "They have two conference championships back-to-back and they have a lot to be proud of. We need to look at it as that's great, but we need to move to our next goal and that's to win the conference tournament and prepare ourselves for the playoffs."

The Vikings grabbed a 2-0 lead in the top of the first thanks to Landon DeBruhl's RBI double and a run-scoring error.

Eastern Wayne (16-3, 9-1 ECC) erupted for 13 runs on six hits and three Kinston errors in the home half of the first. The Warriors sent 16 batters to the plate during the outburst.

Cambric Moye's infield single scored Walker Gourley and trimmed the Vikings' lead to 2-1. Robert Faucette drew a bases loaded walk to tie the score at 2-2. Jose Ponce added an RBI single and Zack Mozingo was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded.

Faucette later scored on an error and Gourley tacked on a two-run single. Eastern Wayne added a run on a wild pitch and Gourley trotted home on an error to extend the Warriors lead to 9-2.

Moye's two-run double increased the advantage to 11-2 and Faucette added an RBI double. Faucette crossed the plate on a wild pitch to cap Eastern Wayne's 13-run first inning.

"We hit the ball hard tonight early," Fulghum said. "The intensity was there early from top to bottom and we played baseball. We had a passion to be out here tonight and we've got to do that everyday. We did what we needed to do tonight."

A wild pitch in the bottom of the second pushed across Gourley and buried Kinston in a 14-2 hole.

The Vikings (4-14, 2-8) scratched across a run on Si'tera Brewer's ground ball out in the top of the fourth.

Camrbic Moye's three-run home run and Mozingo's sacrifice fly capped the Warriors' scoring in the bottom of the fourth. Moye finished 3-for-4 with six RBI and Faucette added three hits and two RBI. Ponce had two hits and an RBI.

"We had some guys hit the ball hard tonight," Fulghum said. "Cambric hit the ball extremely hard for us."

Mozingo tossed a complete game in his second varsity start and allowed three runs (one earned) on three hits with five strikeouts and no walks.

"Mozingo showed signs of throwing well," Fulghum said. "He really did. There were some times the ball came out of his hand really well. He's going to be a guy down the road for us if he'll work he can be pretty good."

Eastern Wayne entertains North Lenoir at 7 p.m. on Monday.