Eastern Wayne baseball beats NL
By Andrew Stevens
Published in Sports on April 19, 2012 1:48 PM
Zack Mozingo and a driving rain delivered Eastern Wayne another key Eastern Carolina 3-A Conference win on Wednesday night.
North Lenoir's ECC title hopes were washed away.
Mozingo held the Hawks to just two hits and recorded 11 strikeouts and the Warriors earned a rain-shortened 2-0 victory. The game was called with Eastern Wayne batting with a 6-0 lead and one out in the bottom of the fifth inning. The final score reverted back to the last completed half inning.
North Lenoir starting pitcher Sammy West lasted just three pitches in the bottom of the first inning before leaving with an arm injury. Relief pitcher Zach Casper replaced West and allowed a lead-off double to Hunter Barnett.
Ryan Faucette followed with an RBI double. Wes Capps' sacrifice fly capped the Warriors' scoring. Barnett and Faucette both finished with two hits.
"We didn't chase a lot of bad pitches tonight and we hit the ball when we had to," Eastern Wayne head coach Jabo Fulghum said. "Overall, we played a pretty good ballgame. We had a lot of energy tonight but we've got to keep that energy."
The Hawks (10-7 overall, 6-4 ECC) had at least one runner on base in four of the five innings played despite tallying just two hits. Mozingo worked around West's one-out double in the top of the first inning. Caleb Kearney struck out looking to end the second inning after Addison Harper's two-out single.
Brian Hardy and Chastin Radford were both hit by a pitch with two outs in the third and fifth innings, respectively.
Mozingo recorded all three outs on strikeouts in the first and fifth innings, and had at least one punch out in all five innings.
"He made the pitches when he had to make them," Fulghum said. "He got ahead of some hitters, and he had a good fastball there in the fourth and fifth innings. That's a sign of him getting a little bit stronger which we need him to be."
Weather permitting, the Warriors (13-4, 9-1) entertain New Bern today. North Lenoir visits Triton on Friday.