DEEP RUN — South Lenoir gave the fans a little bit of everything Friday night, and clinched a state playoff berth in the process.
Some nifty baserunning led to an early advantage and a pair of timely hits late widened the margin as they defeated East Duplin 7-2 to sweep the Panthers and close out the regular season with a win.
Depending on how things shake out in the remaining games in the East Central 2A Conference, South Lenoir (11-9, 8-6) could be as low as the league’s fifth seed or as high as No. 3.
Regardless, the Blue Devils are in the postseason. Again.
“When we play Friday we’re going to be the best, most prepared team we can possibly be,” first-year South Lenoir coach David Combs said. “We win by doing the little things and being aggressive.”
Head’s-up baserunning plays by Cody Ladich and Jake Villabona added to a 2-0 lead in the first inning. Villabona broke for second with two outs, and while he ran back-and-forth in a rundown Ladich scored from third before the tag was made to go up 3-0.
Ladich’s slow roller down the first-base line in the fifth fell in for a hit with Garrett Holland at second, and seeing that no one was covering home Holland kept on going for a 4-2 lead.
It was plays like those — Justin Howard in the on-deck circle actually waved Holland home — that have been the backbone of the Blue Devils’ success to date.
“Our offense is situational and timely hitting,” Combs said. “We’re not going to ground-and-pound anybody.”
Holland (2-1), a senior right-hander, was solid in his final start at home. He gave up two unearned runs on two hits, struck out five and took a one-hitter into the fifth.
Three errors behind him in 5 2/3 innings led to East Duplin’s lone two runs.
Fellow senior Wyatt Janning pitched 1 1/3 scoreless innings for his second save but they weren’t easy. He struck out three and worked his way out of a bases-loaded jam in the seventh.
East Duplin (7-14, 3-10), which has lost five in a row and seven of its last eight, got a decent start out of Jacob Carter. But like Holland, the left-hander was hindered by errors, and of South Lenoir’s seven runs only one was earned.
Carter fanned three and gave up six hits in the loss.
“I’d like to see what happens when we don’t make two or three errors. … You can’t make mistakes like we made and give them a chance to get extra hits. That’s just the bottom line,” Panthers coach Tim Jenkins said.
“I thought we pitched well enough to win, but we didn’t hit when we needed to hit. And that’s kind of been the story of our season.”
Ladich, who went 2-for-3 and drove in three runs, singled home a pair in the sixth for the final score two batters after Grant Tyndall’s RBI single made it 5-2.
After the first two Blue Devils batters of the game reached on errors, Holland drove home a run in the first on a hard-hit ball up the middle for a 1-0 lead. Justin Howard made it 2-0 with a groundout that scored Taylor King, who was running for Brett Davis.
South Lenoir’s 3-0 lead held until Holden Taylor scored on Holland’s throwing error in the fourth. Blaze Tanner scored in the fifth when Taylor’s fly ball to left was misplayed by Villabona.
Those types of plays are the ones the Blue Devils need to sure up come the state playoffs, which begin next Friday, Combs said.
“We’re a team that has to stay mentally focused all game,” he said. “If you can’t play defense you can’t win. We have to be clean on defense.”
Ryan Herman can be reached at 252-559-1073 or Ryan.Herman@Kinston.com. Follow him on Twitter: @KFPSports.
E. Duplin 000 110 0—2 3 4
S. Lenoir 300 013 x—7 6 3
Carter, Tanner (6) and Rogers; Holland, Janning (6) and Davis. W—Holland. L—Carter.