Eastern Wayne upends Wilson Hunt

By Allen Etzler
Published in Sports on April 23, 2015 1:49 PM

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Three fastballs came toward the plate and Eastern Wayne's Ryan Warren watched each one of them go by.

"I told myself I was going to be aggressive, but disciplined at the same time tonight," Warren said. "I saw those three fastballs and I told myself 'if he throws me that again I'm going to hit it.'"

Warren got his wish, turning the fourth fastball into a base hit and driving in the Warriors' first run during an eventual, 7-3 non-conference victory over Wilson Hunt on Wednesday.

Warren doubled during his next at-bat and struck out during his final plate appearance of the game.

"That wasn't a great at-bat, I got a hard time in the dugout from all of those guys for that," Warren said.

But Warren's biggest day wasn't at the plate, it was what he did behind it. The junior catcher played one of his best games defensively on a day when the Warriors struggled, and gave a performance the in Fulghum's eyes was underwhelming.

Warren allowed pitchers Brock Johnson and Braxton Lewis to throw offspeed pitches in the dirt with runners on base, because of his ability to keep the ball in front of him. The one ball that squeaked by him was scored a wild pitch.

"I'll tell you had the best day defensively for us," Warriors coach Jabo Fulghum said. "Ryan Warren. He saved us about 10 times from runners taking free bases by blocking balls in the dirt.

"The one ball he let get passed him was a 38-footer."

Warren appreciates and takes pride in the fact that his pitchers are so comfortable throwing balls in the dirt with him behind the plate.

"I like when they throw those curveballs in the dirt because it means they trust me to block it and they have faith in me," Warren said. "So I have to make sure I block as many as I can."

The Warriors committed two errors in the first inning behind Johnson and gave up two runs. They didn't pick their pitcher up on defense, but helped him offensively by scoring five runs in the bottom of the first to give Johnson a cushion.

The Warriors stranded seven runners after the first inning, much to the dismay of Fulghum.

"Yes, we did a good job responding, but we have to have guys in the middle of the order come through with runners on base," Fulghum said. "They have to want to hit with runners on base. I just didn't feel like we had that tonight."

Tanner Wells and Coy Barnett each had one and one RBI for the Warriors. Johnson gave up two hits and two unearned runs in four hits. Braxton Lewis threw three innings and gave up an unearned run.