03/28/2024
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It had been 411 days since East Bladen last played a baseball game and nearly two years since the Eagles had won one when the 2021 season opened Tuesday night at Russell Priest Field.

Having to play an extra inning to score a come-from-behind victory against one of the state’s top programs may have been worth the wait.

Ethan Johnson tripled in the gap in right-center field with two outs in the bottom of the eighth, then scored on a wild pitch as East Bladen rallied for a 5-4 victory against Whiteville in a nonconference game.

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Photos by Kenneth Armstrong

“I tried to go up there, sit on something and drive it back side,” Johnson said about his blast that put the Eagles in position to win. “I really wasn’t trying to do too much, just try to get on base and let somebody move me around.”

A two-out hit wasn’t needed when a pitch to Lefrederick Wooten went to the backstop.

“I was waiting for him to throw it in the dirt and when he threw it in the dirt my first thing was to go.”

Johnson scored easily and the Eagles began celebrating their first win against Whiteville since March 19, 2010, according to MaxPreps. East Bladen had lost 13 straight times to Whiteville since that 12-4 win when many of the current East Bladen players were playing T-ball or Coach-Pitch. The teams did not play each other from 2014-17 when they were not in the same conference.

“That win is huge,” said second-year East Bladen coach Grant Pait, whose team played only two games in his first season because of the pandemic. “To beat a program like Whiteville, first game of the year, it let’s you know where you stand. We’ve still got a lot of work to do.”

It was East Bladen’s first game since a 13-6 loss against Midway on March 11, 2020 before last season was shut down. It was the Eagles’ first win since May 14, 2019 when they defeated NC School for Science and Math 13-0 in the third round of the state playoffs.

Zach Meares shut down the Whiteville offense over the final six innings. The East Bladen right-hander didn’t allow a run nor a hit and struck out 13. The only base runner he allowed came in the eighth when he hit a batter, but then he struck out the side.

“Zach looked really good,” Pait said. “We really didn’t want to use him tonight. We were trying to ease his way into it. But he wanted the ball, and when they want the ball, you give them the ball.”

Meares pitching performance allowed East Bladen the chance to overcome a 4-0 deficit in the second inning and set the stage for Johnson’s extra-inning heroics.

“Our group has been together for a long time,” Johnson said. “I think we have the possibilities to do good things this season.”

Wooten, Jacob Priest, Tyler Hill and RaSean McKoy each had two hits to lead a 10-hit East Bladen attack. Johnson and Evan Pait each had a hit.

Whiteville scored four unearned runs in the second inning off Priest, the East Bladen starting pitcher, who allowed only one hit, but walked two and hit a batter in two innings. A two-out error in the second opened the door for the Wolfpack to score its four runs.

East Bladen cut the deficit in half in the bottom of the second. Priest reached on error, moved to second on a wild pitch, advanced to third on a two-out single by Hill. With runners on second and third, McKoy singled up the middle that pulled the Eagles within 4-2.

East Bladen pulled within 4-3 in the sixth when Pait, who was pinch-hitting, slapped a two-out single to right that scored Priest, who had singled and moved to second on a wild pitch.

The Eagles tied it in the seventh. Meares walked, moved to second on Wooten’s infield hit, advanced to third when Brady Hollingsworth walked and scored on Priest’s single.

East Bladen is scheduled to host West Columbus on Wednesday at 7 p.m. in another nonconference game.

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