ECBL: Pikeville Green capitalizes on Southern Wayne miscues

By Cam Ellis
Published in Sports on June 17, 2015 1:48 PM

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cellis@newsargus.com

DUDLEY -- Most of the time, if a team makes eight errors in one game, they'd get an earful from the coach, run a few extra sprints and try to forget it ever happened.

Not Anthony Williams' teams, though.

Southern Wayne takes a different approach.

Despite struggling on defense and falling 18-3 to Pikeville Green in Eastern Carolina Baseball League play, Williams came away from the outing encouraged by many different things he saw on the field.

"First off, it's a developmental league, so it's about seeing individual progress," he said. "You can talk about disappointment, but I saw some guys do some awesome things."

One of the highlights for Southern Wayne was Josh Jernigan, who hit in the three hole and played right field on Tuesday afternoon. He batted 3-for-3 with two doubles and a third-inning home run. Had the wind been blowing, Jernigan could have easily hit three home runs.

Williams was most encouraged by what he saw in the dugout.

Down double digits with the on-field temperature that reached 105 degrees, the Southern Wayne players encouraged each other throughout the game.

"Even in what may seem like a total loss, I saw some good stuff," Williams said. "Guys were picking each other up and actually playing as a team."

Pikeville Green benefited from eight Southern Wayne errors. Every batter reached base and all but two had at least one base hit. Leading 5-2 through four innings, Pikeville broke the game open in the fifth and sixth innings, scoring a combined 13 runs during that stretch.

Officials halted the game in the sixth inning via the mercy rule.

"We got better as the game went on," CBA coach Allen Thomas said. "We started squaring balls up. I thought offensively we were fine -- we made some base running mistakes. Obviously though, putting 18 runs on the board, I'm pleased with that."

Chandler Matthews batted 3-for-5 with four RBI and threw a complete game on the mound.

"He got better as the game went on," Thomas added. "He was struggling to find it early but he definitely got better. Mixing his off speed pitches for strikes was big. When he can do that, he's very, very effective."

With temperatures climbing over 100 for the second consecutive day, both coaches took extra precaution to make sure all their players were hydrated. While the heat might have contributed to Southern Wayne's struggles on defense -- Williams mentioned the temperature "probably had something to do with it" -- neither coach would list it as an end-all excuse.

"Weather is something you have to play through," Williams added. "Especially in baseball. This is baseball weather."