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Sports |
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Armed and dangerous Rebels off to hot start TERRANCE THOMAS, LTN Sports Writer March 22, 2002 - VALE — Don’t mess with the West Lincoln baseball team about now. The Rebels are 7-0, ranked in the state, and taking names. They’re hot and finding ways to win close games and yet have to power to blow you out. “We’re playing well in all three phases, pitching, hitting and defense,” said West coach Alan Chapman. “We’re not all that surprised. We didn’t think we were going to start 7-0. “The (players) are a focused group of kids. They make our job easier. We have an unselfish team. A different player helps us win every day.” The Rebels are ranked ninth in the recent Baseball America/N.C. Baseball Coaches 2-A poll. Six of the wins have been sweeps of 3A county-rival East Lincoln, last year’s 1-A state champion Cherryville and 3A Fred T. Foard. In the first game against the Mustangs, Josh Carpenter drove in four runs in a 7-3 win. Chris Halubka struck out nine and got the victory while Jay Heafner mopped things up to get the save. In the second game, West had to get a seventh-inning RBI single from Justin Pearson to beat East 2-1. Heafner pitched a five- inning stretch of no-hit ball in that one. Halubka has been absolutely mean to Cherryville. In two game, the Ironmen have only gotten six hits and one run off of him. Meanwhile, he has struck out 17 of their batters. In the first meeting Brent Gates did the little things, like hitting a sacrifice fly and laying down a successful suicide squeeze to plate two runs. His efforts went a long way in a 3-0 win. In the second game, West catcher David Wise smacked two homers and drove in six runs and the Rebels won 11-1 by the mercy rule. In the first game with Foard, the game was called with the score 5-5 because of darkness. When the two teams met at Foard, Heafner swatted a game-winning grand slam to win 9-5. In the second game, Dustin Gee hit a huge three-run blast to highlight a six-run inning as the Rebels cruised to a 9-5 win. At East Rutherford Tuesday, West threw their best Heafner and Halubka to win 5-3. The Rebels are winning big and winning close. “We have a lot of confidence,” said Brandon Mosteller. “We’re putting everything together. Good defense and hitting is the key.” “We play as a team and practice hard,” said Carpenter. “We have good coaches.” Carpenter and Mosteller are one of the six players on the team that’s hitting over.300. the others are Gee, Pearson, Heafner and Wise, who batting a team-high .478. Heafner leads the team in RBI, On Base Percentage and runs scored. The Rebels will have a big conference test today at Shelby. The Golden Lions are also ranked in the top ten.
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© 2001 Lincoln Times-News |
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