Sluggish Saints can't recover from early-inning deficit

By Rudy Coggins
Published in Sports on April 4, 2015 11:35 PM

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rcoggins@newsargus.com

WILSON -- Northern Nash's offense did plenty of damage during the first two innings against Southern Wayne on Saturday afternoon.

And the snake-bitten Saints couldn't repair the cracks in their defense.

Winning pitcher Chad Nelms helped his cause with three hits and the aggressive-running Knights stole eight bases during their 15-2 romp at Ferrell Field on opening-day play of the second annual Golden Leaf Invitational.

Eight of nine starters contributed to Northern Nash's 14-hit attack against four Southern Wayne hurlers. Tyler Barrett (RBI), Jacob Green (RBI) and Derrick Carter (two RBI) provided two hits apiece.

"The kids came out a little bit better today," NN head coach Leonard Allen said. "We had a three-game conference week back-to-back-to-back and we were exhausted. I think today was a good chance to come back and get some swings in.

"Having a day off yesterday was probably a bigger factor than anything we could have done offensively at practice."

The Knights struck early.

Haggerty's lead-off walk, Barrett's RBI double and Green's run-scoring single helped give Nelms some early working room. Green trotted home an RBI fielder's choice groundout.

Southern Wayne (2-10 overall) nearly answered.

Freshman Jack Casberro, who had three of the Saints' five hits on the day, connected on a one-out single. Hunter Barwick moved Casberro to second with a single and each advanced when Cody Davis reached on catcher's interference.

But Nelms, Haggerty and Barrett combined for an inning-ending 1-6-3 double play that deflated the Saints' spirit.

"When they put that three-spot on us in the first inning (and) we had the bases loaded (in our half), the guy (Nelms) makes a real good play on the mound and they turn two off of it," second-year SW head coach Jackson Massey said.

"Our mindset right now is if we don't score in the first inning or we get scored on in the first inning, it's over."

Northern Nash (5-6) tacked on two more in the second inning. A gamble on a stolen-base attempt at third base, which led to a throwing error, and a sacrifice fly made it 5-0.

The lack of communication bothered Massey.

"It took us until the third inning just to yell 'runner' when somebody would steal the bag," Massey said. "For three innings, they could do whatever they wanted and we couldn't stop it because nobody was talking ... we weren't here."

Southern Wayne climbed to within 5-1 on Davis' run-scoring single in the third. However, the Saints hit into a rally-killing fielder's choice in the fourth inning and left the bases loaded in the fifth.

Casberro tallied Southern's second run on a seventh-inning balk by Haggerty -- the Knights' third pitcher of the afternoon. Nelms yielded four hits and retired three Saints on strikeouts in four-plus innings.

Massey's club left 10 men on base.

The Knights put the game away with five-inning uprisings in each of the fifth and seventh innings.