Warriors strand too many runners in loss to J.H. Rose

By Allen Etzler
Published in Sports on March 22, 2014 11:19 PM

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aetzler@newsargus.com

The image of watching runners jog off the base paths at the end of an inning without crossing home plate is becoming too familiar for Eastern Wayne's baseball team.

The Warriors saw the replay Friday evening. They left eight runners stranded over the final four innings during a 5-0 loss to J.H. Rose in Eastern Carolina 3-A/4-A Conference play.

Eastern Wayne out-hit Rose, 8-6, but three errors and failing to capitalize with runners on base proved crucial.

"We need to cut down on the errors and come through in the clutch," Warriors' left fielder Tanner Wells said. "We've done that a lot this season with runners in scoring position. We get them there and don't come through."

Rose did all the damage in a four-run third inning.

Behind three doubles from Mason Keen, Jordan Bryant and Matthew Romagna -- and one big defensive miscue by Eastern Wayne -- the Rampants held a five-run lead after three.

That's when Warriors pitcher Ryan Faucette found his groove. He retired the next nine batters he faced and tallied three of his five strikeouts in that span.

Faucette ran into trouble when he put two runners on base in the seventh. But he struck out two batters and forced Blake Rogers to pop up to first to end the inning.

"(Ryan) threw the ball well from the fourth inning on," Warriors head coach Jabo Fulghum said. "Four, five, six, seven ... he threw the ball extremely well. He was hitting his spots a lot better."

But to the disappointment of Faucette and his teammates, the offense never came together. Tanner Wells led off the sixth by hitting a double off the center-field fence for his second hit of the game. Nothing materialized from the extra-base hit.

"I wasn't trying to just put it play," Wells said. "I was trying to get something started and get some momentum going. Just didn't work out."

The Warriors (2-5 overall, 1-2 ECC) also had the bases loaded with one out in the bottom of the third and failed to score. They stranded runners on second and third in the fifth.

"I thought we should have won that game," Wells said. "Our record doesn't show it, but we're just as good a team as they are. We can beat that team."

The Rampants (8-0, 4-0) received a complete-game, 10-strikeout effort from Mason Keen. His final strikeout, a low curveball in the dirt, ended the game and another Warrior jogged off the basepath, this time to shake hands with his opponent.