Faith Christian begins quest for NCCSA 2A baseball crown

By Rudy Coggins
Published in Sports on May 2, 2014 1:52 PM

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rcoggins@newsargus.com

A solid offense has served as Faith Christian's disguise for a shaky defense on the baseball diamond this season.

That can't happen now.

Hitting, pitching and defense become even more critical when the Conquerors open the N.C. Christian Schools Association 2-A playoffs at home today. Faith (6-7 overall) entertains Wilmington Christian, which won the teams' lone regular-season meeting nearly two months ago.

First pitch is 4:30 p.m.

"We have to come ready to play hard defensively in order to stay alive (in the playoffs)," Faith head coach Justin Smith said. "We have had to force ourselves to score a lot of runs to win games this year. Our defense must improve."

The Conquerors have been outscored 108-82, but tallied 10-plus runs in four of their six victories. They are 3-1 in games decided by one run.

Faith has compiled a .391 team batting and a .504 on-base percentage. Those stats haven't surprised Smith, who knew his biggest challenge would involve developing pitchers and position players.

Eighth-grader Jack Casbarro is hitting .583 at the dish and leads the team in runs scored (15), hits (21) and on-base percentage (.643). Richard Sasser, who helped guide the basketball team to the elite eight, has logged a .551 average at the plate and driven in a team-high nine runs.

Levi Wise is hitting .462 and is tied with Sasser for second on the team in hits (12). Sophomore Christian Mills ranks second on the team in RBI (7), while Andrew Parrish -- the Conquerors' lone senior -- has been consistent offensively throughout the season.

"There's a lot of guys hitting the ball hard consistently and in a short season, that's huge," Smith said. "Another challenge has been getting runners in. We have had too many guys left on base."

Wise, Casbarro and Mills have handled the bulk of the pitching duties. Wise has two victories on the bump, posted 36 strikeouts and fashioned a 2.55 earned run average (ERA) in 242/3 innings of work.

Casbarro and Mills have combined to toss 332/3 innings.

"I think, looking back, we saw that errors and walks were key in letting games get out of reach for us (this season)," Smith said. "But I have seen improvement recently in our pitching. With the exception of walks, our pitchers have done their best on the mound to keep us in games.

"We need the eight guys behind them to play solid and make the plays."