Hayes' steady diet of off-speed stuff bothers Warriors

By Rudy Coggins
Published in Sports on May 3, 2014 11:27 PM

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rcoggins@newsargus.com

DUDLEY -- Eastern Wayne constantly took the bait when Southern Wayne right-hander Jackson Hayes dangled a curveball either over or outside the plate Friday evening.

And the Saints reeled in their first Eastern Carolina 3-A/4-A Conference victory of the year -- a 3-1 triumph over the Warriors on the Doyle Whitfield Athletic Complex. Hayes logged 10 strikeouts, yielded three hits and logged his second complete game on the bump this season.

"I was throwing my curveball for a strike the whole game," said Hayes, one of six seniors honored prior to the first pitch. "If I threw it off the plate, they were swinging. They basically got themselves out, which helped out me out a lot.

"I think we played pretty good tonight. I believe we're hungry. I know I am ... wanted to win this game bad."

Hayes (3-5) retired 12 of 13 batters during four-plus innings and sat down five of the last 10 Warriors he faced on strikeouts. Eastern Wayne (10-12 overall, 4-7 ECC) tallied an unearned run in the first inning, but had just four batters reach base during the final six innings.

"I'll give credit to Hayes, he pitched his tail off," Warriors head coach Jabo Fulghum said. "The first time we faced him, we laid off of that breaking ball down (in the zone). Tonight, we couldn't lay off. He got stronger as the game went on.

"We didn't make adjustments and he made good pitches."

Hayes coaxed the Warriors into eight groundouts and three flyouts during his 98-pitch outing.

"Tonight, he threw every pitch for strikes," Saints head coach Jackson Massey said. "Later on in the game we started mixing in fastballs when they were looking for curveballs, I think. He's been like that about the last four or five games, but just hasn't gotten much (run) support.

"He's been our horse all year."

Trailing 1-0, the Saints (7-15, 1-10) touched Eastern Wayne right-hander Tyler Warren (3-3) for a pair of third-inning runs. Chris Reedy drew a lead-off walk, advanced on Kevin Williams' sacrifice bunt and scored on DJ Graham's two-out bloop single down the right-field line.

Graham took second on the play and hustled home on Josh Jernigan's sharply-hit single in nearly the same spot.

A fourth-inning defensive miscue helped give Hayes a two-run cushion. Senior Garrad Whitfield reached safely on a misplayed ground ball and scored two outs later on Williams' chopper that took a bad hop on the Warriors' second baseman.

The Saints finished with five hits.

"The one thing I was really proud of with our guys tonight is that we finally made some adjustments at the plate," Massey said. "We started sitting back and hitting the ball the other way, started putting some balls in play. They were up for seven innings and brought the intensity today, which is all I can ask from them."

Hayes, Williams, Whitfield, Drake Shaw, Nathan Barwick and DJ Skinner played their final regular-season home game in a Southern Wayne uniform.

The county foes split their regular-season series for the second straight year, but the Warriors have won 19 of 28 meetings overall since 2004.