By Sonny Jones
The West Bladen baseball team was thrown a curve ball prior to the beginning of official practice in February when first-year head coach Jason Jones opted to step aside for personal reasons.
In stepped assistant coach Wade Pait, who was the head coach for several seasons back in the late 2000s and early 2010s. He guided the Knights to a 20-6 record and a conference championship in 2008, according to MaxPreps.
Not even that title team accomplished what the Knights did Wednesday night. For the first time since 2015, West Bladen has won its first two games.
The Knights beat East Columbus 6-3 on Wednesday after claiming a 9-8 come-from-behind victory at Gray’s Creek on Monday.
In 2015, West Bladen opened with a 14-0 rout of St. Pauls on March 9, then rolled past West Columbus 9-1 the next night. The Knights lost to defending state champion Midway 14-2 in their third game before winning four straight to begin the season 6-1. The team finished 12-9 and advanced to the third round of the state playoffs.
That 2008 team Pait coached lost its opener 4-1 against South View, then won three straight and six of its next seven. That squad also reached the third round of the state playoffs, losing 2-1 against Whiteville.
West Bladen has two games against West Columbus, a return contest against East Columbus and a game March 13 against Union before beginning Southeastern Athletic Conference play March 14 at Clinton.
Who knows what will happen the rest of the season? After not having a season with double-digit wins since 2017 when West Bladen went 13-10, albeit two of those were reduced by COVID-19 regulations, it’s nice to see the Knights off to a strong start.
• Think baseball isn’t a humbling game? Tuesday night, East Bladen shut out South Columbus 10-0, got a terrific pitching performance from Jake Futrell and hit the ball hard. A day later, the Eagles were blanked 17-0 at South Brunswick. The Cougars were 25-5 and lost to South Rowan in 3-A state championship series last season.
• Let’s be honest. A 15-team ACC basketball tournament is too many teams and a 20-game conference schedule is too many in-league games. It’s not going to change as conferences continue to grow, but it makes it more difficult to follow.
TODAY IN SPORTS HISTORY
• 1962 — Wilt Chamberlain scores an NBA-record 100 points to lead the Philadelphia Warriors to a 169-147 triumph over the New York Knicks. Chamberlain scores 59 second-half points and 28 points from the free-throw line for records.
POTATO PICKS TO WATCH TODAY
• PGA: Puerto Rico Open, 10 a.m., GOLF
• ACC WOMEN’S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT: Florida State vs. Wake Forest, 11 a.m., ACCN
• MLB: Philadelphia vs. Boston, noon, ESPN
• ACC WOMEN’S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT: N.C. State vs. Syracuse, 2 p.m., ACCN
• PGA: Arnold Palmer Invitational, 2 p.m., GOLF
• NFL: Scouting Combine – Defensive linemen, linebackers, 3 p.m., NFLN
• MLB: Arizona vs. L.A. Dodgers, 3 p.m., MLBN
• ACC WOMEN’S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT: North Carolina vs. Clemson, 6 p.m., ACCN
• NBA: Philadelphia at Dallas, 7:30 p.m., TNT
• ACC WOMEN’S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT: Miami vs. Boston College, 8 p.m., ACCN
• LPGA: Women’s World Championship, 9:30 p.m., GOLF
• NBA: L.A. Clippers at Golden State, 10 p.m., TNT
Sonny Jones can be reached at wibbyj@gmail.com.
About Author
1 thought on “Couch Potato: West Bladen Baseball Team Off To Best Start Since 2015”
Comments are closed.