Saints stun Warriors, 7-4, in baseball
By Cam Ellis
Published in Sports on May 6, 2015 1:49 PM
cellis@newsargus.com
Southern Wayne might be the Eastern Carolina 3-A/4-A Conference's most dangerous 5-17 team.
Playing county rival Eastern Wayne on Wednesday, the Saints looked like a completely different team than the one that lost to the Warriors 15-8 in early April.
Matt Holland was strong on the mound, finally getting some run support as Southern Wayne spoiled Eastern Wayne's senior night, 7-4.
Holland, the Saint's ace, lived up to his billing. The senior righty threw six strong innings, allowing two runs. He gave 11 hits, but minimized the damage with six strikeouts and just two walks.
"A lot of times when Matt has pitched, our offense hasn't helped him out," Southern Wayne head coach Jackson Massey said. "Before tonight, he's had something like a 2.00 ERA. So when a pitcher does that, you can't really ask for much else.
"He's been our guy all year. Any time there's a big game, he's going to get the ball."
Holland credited the strong play of the defense behind him.
"My team was backing me up a lot," he said. "Going into the game, I knew they had me. If I had to give you a reason (for pitching well), I'd have to say I owe it all to my team right now. They're the reason why I did what I did."
Holland was also strong at the plate. He went 3-3 with a double from the lead-off spot and scored twice. Other contributors included Aryc Chrisman and Jack Casberro -- who each had an RBI single -- and Hunter Barwick, who went 2-4 with a single, a double and three RBI.
It was Barwick's two-run double in the top of the fifth inning that gave the Saints the lead for good and chased Eastern Wayne starter Tanner Wells.
The win is Southern Wayne's second in three games, including an extra-inning one-run loss to J.H. Rose just 24 hours earlier.
"The way we've been playing since Easter break, minus one game, has been really, really good," Massey said. "We were in a similar situation last year, and it came out and benefited us. If we're fortunate enough to play again in the postseason, then we can be as good as we want to be."
The late-season slide continued for Eastern Wayne. A day after losing by eight runs against Charles B. Aycock, the Warriors dropped what -- on paper -- looked to be a chance to rebound. But they had three errors, which was their Achilles' heel the night before.
The Warriors suffered their third consecutive loss and have been outscored 30-9 during that stretch.
It was the final regular-season game for both teams. Eastern Wayne has secured a playoff spot. Southern Wayne must play the wait-and-see game now.
"The beginning of the season we would just give up," Holland said. "Now, we've learned how to fight. We're brothers and we learned how to fight back for each other. We're not playing for ourselves anymore, we're playing for the team."