MOREHEAD CITY — Lenoir Community College came into Friday’s Region X Division II tournament opener in a bit of a rut, a loser of nine of its last 12 regular season games, largely due to an anemic offense.
Pasco-Hernando Community College right-hander Chris Fee made certain the sixth-seeded Lancers’ hitting woes continued.
After a rocky first-inning, Fee cruised through the rest of the game, retiring 23 of the final 26 he faced as the third-seeded Conquistadors stopped LCC cold 2-1 at Big Rock Stadium’s Puck O’Neal Field.
The Lancers (30-19) are now relegated to the loser’s bracket and will face Rockingham C.C. in an elimination contest today at 10 a.m. Pasco-Hernando plays Brunswick C.C., which defeated Rockingham 6-0 Friday, in the winner’s bracket today at 4 p.m.
“You can’t score runs if you don’t hit, it’s that simple,” LCC coach Stony Wine said. “About the last four series we’ve played we’ve been ineffective on offense. We’re not making adjustments, trying to pull everything.”
LCC’s approach at the plate played right into Fee’s hands. The lanky 6-foot-3, 175-pounder used a three-quarter delivery that often dipped into sidearm territory, conducive to inducing ground balls.
And the Lancers obliged, logging 17 infield outs. Even one of their four hits, a leadoff single by Chastin Radford, never left the infield.
“We played right into their pitcher’s hands,” Wine said. “He lived on the outside half of the plate but we hardly ever went with the pitch. We kept trying to pull the ball and got nothing but ground outs and pop ups.
LCC showed signs of life in the first inning. After Radford opened the game with a base hit and stole second, shortstop Kyle Smith dropped a base hit down the right field line for a quick 1-0 lead.
It was also the end of the Lancers’ scoring opportunities until the ninth.
Smith led off the top of the final frame with a solid single to left. He was sacrificed to second and advanced to third on an infield out, bringing Tyler Tant to the plate with the tying run 90 feet away.
Conquistadors head coach Steve Wintering never even visited the mound, putting his complete faith in Fee, who rewarded his coach’s trust by, what else, getting Tant to ground out to third to end the game.
“The inability to get clutch hits has really hurt us down the stretch,” Wine said. “It seems that even when we get a couple of hits, we can’t capitalize on them.”
Fee’s terrific performance overshadowed a stellar effort from LCC southpaw Troy Jones, who tossed seven innings with five strike outs.
“Overall, Troy definitely pitched well enough to win,” Wine said. “He made just a couple of mistakes, a 0-2 pitch that they got the hit on to tie the score (in the third inning), and then that pitch that was up in the zone in the fifth.”
That up-in-the-zone pitch in the fifth left the yard courtesy of Pasco-Hernando’s George Van Riper, whose solo blast well over the left field wall was the difference in the game.
The Conquistadors (32-20) managed eight hits in the contest.
Notes: This is Pasco-Hernando’s third appearance in the Region X Division II tournament. The win over LCC was its first; they had lost all four of their previous games. … Fee’s start was just his fourth of the season in 22 appearances. He worked out of the bullpen almost the entire season before starting three games in the final three weeks of the regular season. … Pasco-Hernando came into the tournament on a tough streak of its own. The Conquistadors had lost four of their final five, including a season-ending sweep at Tallahassee Community College. … LCC has managed just 32 runs in its past 13 games, an average of 2.5 per contest.
Lenoir C.C. 100 000 000—1 4 2
Pasco-Hernando C.C. 001 010 00x—2 8 1
Jones, Long (8) and Remick; Fee and Alimonti. W—Fee. L—Jones.