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Eagles host Gray’s Creek in first round
VANCEBORO - It's win or go home for the West Craven baseball team.
East Carolina-bound pitcher Shawn Armstrong will be given the ball today, hoping to prolong West Craven's season, as well as his own high school career.
Armstrong, a senior, owns a 5-1 record with a 2.66 earned run average during the regular season.
"I expect him to come out and establish control of the strike zone," said West Craven coach Ryan Whitney. "I expect him to be effective and mix up pitches and throw strikes."
The Eagles (13-8) will host Gray's Creek in the first round of the 3-A state playoffs at 7 p.m. tonight. The Bears, members of the Cape Fear Valley Conference, posted an 11-10 record during the regular season.
"They are a playoff team, so they have got to be a quality team," Whitney said. "It is an overall mentality that it is one-and-done if we don't play as hard as we can. If we play as hard as we can then the sky is the limit on what we can do. Everybody is back to 0-0 and you have got to play your best baseball right now."
Gray's Creek, most likely, will send pitcher Brandon Browne to the mound. Browne leads the Bears with 15 strikeouts. He also has one home run and five runs batted in from the plate.
"I understand they have got a pretty good left-hander that I am expecting to see on Friday," Whitney said. "From what I understand, he has got a good fastball, good breaking ball and is their No. 1 guy."
Joe Saunders leads Gray's Creek with six RBIs, while Jordan White, Phillip Johnson, Matt Reed and Zach White combined for 15 RBIs on the season.
Whitney hopes that last year's playoff experience will help his team.
Last year, the Eagles made it to the playoffs for the first time since 2002. They beat Jacksonville, 14-3, in the first round, before losing to C.B. Aycock.
"I think one thing that has helped us is having been in the playoffs last year for the first time in a few years," Whitney said. "It has helped with some of the nerves that they might have coming into the first round because we have experience coming back. I think that our seniors have been the ones that have led us the entire year and they are going to be the ones that continue to lead us."
The Eagles have had offensive production from Armstrong and fellow senior Alan Edwards all season. According to Whitney, Chris Ipock, Logan Swindell, Kyle Warmack, Chris Hardison and Brandon Donnell are going to have to play a key role for West Craven.
"I still don't think we are quite where we need to be," Whitney said. "Alan Edwards has swung the bat well all year, and Shawn has done a good job swinging the bat. One through nine, are we were we want to be? Not quite. If we can have a few more guys hit, it will help us out and I think we will be OK."
