Baseball --Wayne Country Day hammers Greenfield in twinbill

By Justin Hayes
Published in Sports on April 29, 2017 11:06 PM

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jhayes@newsargus.com

Terminal velocity.

Such was the offensive pace gathered on Friday by the Wayne Country Day varsity baseball outfit, whose aggressive approach at the plate resulted in a twinbill demolition of Coastal Plains Independent 1-A Conference rival Greenfield, and further, secured the club's first league title in six years.

En route to the sweep, WCDS (15-5 overall, 8-0 CPIC) plated a staggering 22 runs and chased five pitchers from the Knights' bullpen.

"It was there," Chargers' head coach Michael Taylor said of his team's volume production. "And it led out from yesterday -- in game two, our plate appearances were a lot better."

The opener was an exercise in calculated efficiency for WCDS, which scored runs in the first, second and fourth innings on the strength of Avery Browning's 1-for-3, three-RBI effort.

Also factoring prominently for the Chargers was the duo of Mitch Turnage and John Strickland, who combined to finish with five RBI in the 7-2 triumph.

The slow burn also proved to be more than enough flexibility for starter Amane Godo, who riddled the Knights with a mixture of curvature and capable pace. In collecting his fourth victory of the spring, the junior dealt five strikeouts and allowed two runs -- both of the bother-me-not variety in the fifth inning.

Then game two happened.

After allowing a Greenfield run to begin the nightcap, WCDS staged a true offensive insurrection, battering Knights' starter Luke Flaherty for nine turnstile-inspired runs on eight sharp base knocks -- including a free-swinging, lunar module grand slam by sophomore Case Kermode to conclude the outburst.

From there, Wayne Country Day emptied its bullpen, giving Browning enough time on the bump to register his first victory of the season. In total, the sophomore allowed three runs on a single hit while striking out five.

Helping facilitate the remainder of the 15-4 runaway was Turnage, who finished the affair 3-for-4 with an RBI; and Strickland, who went 1-for-1 with an RBI. Also scratching for WCDS were Jack Talton, Tanner Willman and Jonathon Bryan -- all of whom contributed an RBI for the hosts.

Post-game, skipper Taylor spoke eloquently about his senior class, who leave the program having participated in 70 Charger victories.

But there's also the group's aggregate plate totals to consider.

Over the course of its varsity career, the lunch-pail consortium of Turnage, Strickland, Bryan and utility-knife Zach Barfield rapped out a workman-like 400 base hits, scored 310 runs and maintained a batting average of .300 --prodigious figures for any program, anywhere.

Its regular season now complete, WCDS returns to action next Tuesday in the opening-round of the CPIC tournament.

First pitch is at 4:30 p.m.