Warriors hang hopes on wild card

If Wednesday night's loss at Hibriten closes the book on West Caldwell's season, Warrior coach Kevin Abee said it will be a shame.

The Warriors (9-15), seeded No. 8 in the Catawba Valley Athletic Conference tournament, were handed their worst loss of the season, a 21-3 drubbing, by their county rival and the CVAC's top seeded team in the first round of the league tournament.

“You hurt for the guys and hurt for the baseball program when you suffer a loss like this,” Abee said. “Really, I didn't see it coming. I thought our guys were really ready to play. I was very surprised to see us play like that.”

Now, the Warriors put their hopes into the state's wild card system. Four wild card berths are available in the 32-team 2-A West playoff bracket. Wild cards are awarded based on overall records of teams that did not earn one of their conference's allotted berths. Nine-win teams have made it before and through some research, Abee believes his team has an outside shot at making it this year.

“We'll see how things play out the next few days,” Abee said. “I told the guys if there is any way we can play another game, it sure would be nice. We don't want to end things like that because we have improved.”

That the Warriors' most lopsided loss of the year came at this late juncture of the season was surprising to Abee and company for a few reasons. For starters, the Warriors played Hibriten to a tight 7-4 game April 10, one in which the Panthers (18-5) had to come from behind in the final two innings to win. And if any team had shown improvement as this year went on, it's been West Caldwell.

The Warriors started the season with a 1-0 win over Freedom, but lost their next seven games by a 66-16 count. Their second win came March 20 at Newton-Conover and the 12-2, five-inning victory started a solid stretch for the Warriors, who had gone 8-7 since the poor start, entering Wednesday's game.

But the Panthers, winners of their last four, came out swinging - literally. Hibriten's first five batters reached and scored against West Caldwell starter Jeffrey Rousselle (1-8), who did not record an out and left following Dylan Crump's two-run home run to left. Evan Swanson came on in relief as Hibriten finished the first with a two-run Matt Edwards home run, then added nine more runs in the second.

“It was just a situation tonight where they were really hitting the baseball and we didn't have an answer for them,” Abee said.

It didn't help that three of West Caldwell's top four pitchers were unavailable. Jake Benfield (4-3) pitched West Caldwell to a win Tuesday and had thrown seven innings 24 hours prior. He warmed up during one inning Wednesday, but did not move from his spot at third base.

A.J. Jenkins, who is 4-2 this year, remained sidelined with a hand injury, possibly a stress fracture. He had an MRI this week and is awaiting results. And Travis Harrison, who had made some appearances in relief, is no longer with the team.

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