ECBL: Eastern Wayne battles heat, humidity and Wayne Country Day

By Cam Ellis
Published in Sports on June 16, 2015 1:48 PM

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cellis@newsargus.com

The Eastern Carolina Baseball League's primary goal is about getting kids experience and teaching them lessons after the school season is over.

Yesterday's lesson was about learning to deal with the heat.

Under hot, hazy conditions, Eastern Wayne survived a last-inning scare from Wayne Country Day and squeaked out a 6-5 win in front of a small, but enthusiastic crowd on Monday night.

While it certainly wasn't a clean game on either side, Eastern Wayne played just well enough to top the Chargers, who struggled to find a pitcher who could locate the strike zone.

John Strickland started for WCDS and didn't last long.

Strickland worked 21/3 innings, allowing five runs despite giving up just three hits. He lost the zone in the third inning though, walking the first three batters before allowing an RBI double to Case Kermode. He walked the next batter, Ryan Warren, and was pulled in favor of reliever Amane Godo.

Eastern Wayne worked the count all afternoon, getting at least one runner on base in every inning.

"I was pleased overall with the at-bats we had," EW head coach Randall Fields said. "We had a couple miscues on a sac bunt that we couldn't get down. That was good pitching to start with ... he had good life on his fastball. I think we barreled him up good at the beginning and the guys I put in later in the game barreled him up good."

The biggest offensive show came from center fielder Carlisle Smith. Smith, batting third, took Strickland deep to right center in the top of the third inning for a two-run home run.

Freshman Jay Wiseman started on the mound for Eastern Wayne and got off to a rocky start. He gave up a lead-off double to Mitch Turnage, who later scored on Boone Moody's groundout to second base. But Wiseman settled down and permitted just two runs on nine hits in six strong innings.

Wiseman escaped a bases-loaded jam in the second inning.

"All three pitchers (that pitched on Monday afternoon) were ninth-graders," Fields said. "And that's the best ballclub we've faced so far and we pitched ninth-graders against them, so I'm proud of that.

"It's very encouraging because we have four games this week and this enables us to go against one of our rivals, North Lenoir, tomorrow with rising seniors on the mound."

Offensively, it was a disappointing performance for WCDS. The Chargers scratched out five runs, three of which came in the final inning, on nine hits. They left 10 men on base.

With temperatures expected to reach triple digits by mid-week, Fields spent his post-game speech stressing the importance of staying cool, and most importantly, hydrating.

"I told them to go home and start drinking tonight," he said. "They have to go home and then they have to drink all morning. If they wait until they get here tomorrow, it'll be too late."

Eastern Wayne visits North Lenoir today.