It wasn’t easy and it wasn’t pretty, but any way you dissect it, Lenoir Community College’s season-opening doubleheader with the N. C. Wesleyan junior varsity squad was this: two wins.
The Lancers used a fortuitous bounce to claim Game 1 3-2 and took advantage of 10 walks by Wesleyan pitchers to rally in the nightcap 9-8.
Both victories could just as easily been losses.
“We did what we set out to do, which was win and give a lot of kids some game experience in the process,” LCC coach Stony Wine said. “We’ve got a lot of work to do, but overall it was a typical opening day. Some good, some bad.”
Most of the good came from the bats of freshman Robbie Hiser and sophomore Tyler Tant.
Hiser drilled four hits in the twin bill, including a pair of doubles, and drove in three runs, all with a bases-clearing two-bagger in the first inning of game two.
It was the Grafton, Va., native’s first double that helped the Lancers to victory in the opener.
With the score tied 2-2 in the bottom of the sixth, Hiser led off with a shot into the left-center field gap that rolled all the way to the fence.
Hiser easily coasted into second, bringing Tant to the plate with the game in the balance.
Tant had homered to open LCC’s scoring in the second frame, but it was his base hit in the sixth that brought Hiser home with the eventual game-winner.
Tant ripped a 2-2 fastball from Wesleyan reliever Dillon Moore directly to shortstop Robbie Lanier. As Lanier set himself to field the one hopper, the ball ricocheted off the edge of the infield grass and bounded well over the shortstop’s head into left field.
Hiser scored without a throw and then Kyle Smith retired the Bishops in order in the top of the seventh to seal the triumph.
Travis Long, who pitched a perfect sixth, earned the win for the Lancers, who used seven pitchers in the opener and 15 in the two games combined.
The sixth and seventh were the only 1-2-3 innings by LCC pitchers in Game 1.
“We wanted to give everyone some work, and for the most part we did,” Wine said. “Pitching-wise it was a mixed bag. Some of the guys threw strikes and others didn’t and had to work from behind.”
Game 2 was more of an offensive show as the Lancers collected 12 hits to go with the 10 free passes.
In fact, it was a bases-loaded walk in the bottom of the seventh that tallied the winning run.
After Smith led off the stanza with a single to left and advanced to second on an out by Tant, Bishops’ coach Greg Clark played the percentages and intentionally walked Hiser to set up the force play.
A wild pitch moved the runners to second and third, so Clark again followed the playbook and gave Trent Murray an intentional pass to fill the sacks with one out.
Reliever Andrew Franklin then walked pinch-hitter Troy Denning on five pitches to force home the winning run.
“We had some good at-bats in the second game,” Wine said. “We hit the ball hard when we got good pitches and were patient when we didn’t.”
Another bases-loaded walk, this one to Murray, had allowed the Lancers to grab an 8-7 advantage in the last of the fifth.
The Bishops tied it in the top of the seventh, setting up LCC’s final-frame heroics.
Tant doubled in a run and belted a sacrifice fly for the Lancers in Game 2. The product of West Johnston High School finished the day 4-for-7 with 4 RBIs.
Several local players had good outings, and not just for the Lancers.
Former North Lenoir standout Chastin Radford delivered three hits, including a triple, in his LCC debut and his NL teammate David Wiggins tossed two scoreless innings in Game 2 with three whiffs.
Wiggins was the only LCC hurler to pitch at least two innings.
Another former NL star, Mikal Batts, tripled and drove in three runs in the nightcap for the hard-luck Bishops, who have lost all four of their games so far this season by a combined five runs.
Game 1
NC Wesleyan 101 000 0—2 7 0
Lenoir CC 020 001 x—3 8 1
Mondoux, Moore (4), and Lovett. Cain, Kopenski (1), Morgart (3), Hardison (4), Kaiser (5), Long (6), Smith (7), and Remick. WP—Long. LP—Moore. SV—Smith.
Game 2
NC Wesleyan 301 030 1—8 10 0
Lenoir CC 400 130 1—9 12 1
Dietrich, Lovett (2), Pratt (5), Elmore (5), Franklin (7), and Sheridan, Vincent (4). Jarboe, Jones (1), Kennedy (3), Kearney (4), James (5), Warren (5), Wiggins (5), Hiser (7), and Murray. WP—Hiser. LP—Elmore.