Eagles seeded 4th, at-large Chargers seeded 7th

By Rudy Coggins
Published in Sports on May 4, 2015 1:48 PM

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Wayne Christian made history.

And, along with county rival Wayne Country Day, continued a decade-long tradition on the baseball diamond Sunday afternoon.

The county rivals are among the 12-team field revealed for the 2015 N.C. Independent Schools Athletic Association playoffs, which begin first-round play Tuesday at four sites.

The Chargers (8-8 overall) drew the No. 7 seed and entertain 10th-seeded Pungo Academy -- a rematch of last year's opening-round game won by Pungo. First pitch is 4:30 p.m.

Wayne Christian, one of three automatic qualifiers in the postseason, received its first-ever opening-round bye and awaits the Kerr-Vance/Northwood Temple winner either next Friday or Saturday.

A game time has not been determined.

"I didn't realize that," Wayne Christian coach Curt Hinton said of the program receiving its first-ever opening-round bye.

"That's exciting ... I can share that with the team today, so that will be great."

WCDS heads into the postseason on a three-game skid. But the late-season slide doesn't bother head coach Michael Taylor, a Charles B. Aycock alum.

Six of his team's losses have occurred against teams seeded among the top three in this year's playoffs. The Chargers have appeared in the playoffs every since 2001 and played for the state championship in 2012.

"No, not worried at all," Taylor said. "Look at the people we have lost to the last three games, including Greenfield (No. 1 seed) and Oakwood (No. 3 seed). We got a decent seed because of our strength of schedule.

"Playing that kind of quality competition is going to pay off for us. One of our goals was to make the playoffs and have a first-round home game. Hopefully, we can take care of business at home."

Taylor isn't sure who will get the starting nod against Pungo. Mitch Turnage threw five superb innings in last year's game, a heart-breaking 2-1 loss on the Raiders' diamond.

A pitch-by-committee strategy could be used.

Wayne Christian recovered from a midseason slump and the coaching staff decided to make some defense changes. They moved Holden Foster to second base and Trey Hinton to shortstop, which strengthened the middle infield. Austin Howell took over in center field and Ryan Kennedy moved to the hot corner.

The Eagles reduced their defensive mistakes and took pressure off of a pitching staff that's reduced its walks considerably over the past two weeks. Those subtle changes enabled Wayne Christian to run the table in Carolina Christian 1-A Conference regular-season and tournament play -- and outscore the opposition 87-1 along the way.

"In the 18 years I've been doing this, I told the kids that either one of two things can happen," said Hinton, who referred to a midseason slump. "We could either continue to slide, or come out on the other side. They've really improved their game."

"I think we can hit with any team. We have the consistency in pitching and defensively we have to continue to prove. The law of science has proven that the team that has more walks and errors loses about 95 percent of the time."