Lancers open with sweep of Craven

It certainly wasn’t nerves or a lack of focus that cost Lenoir Community College an opening day no-hitter in the final inning Saturday.

The thought hadn’t even entered the mind of the man on the mound.

Charlie Parsons went 2-for-3 and five pitchers combined on a one-hit shutout in the Lancers’ 2-0 win to cap a season-opening doubleheader sweep of Craven Community College.

Jonathan Redd, Stephen Butt and Steve Hartley had two hits each and LCC used six pitchers in a 9-4 win in the opener.

“It’s a good start,” said seventh-year Lancers coach Stony Wine, whose team had a combined 18 hits in the twinbill and fielded the ball well all day. “We did a good job showing pitching.”

The Game 2 no-hitter died in the seventh when Craven’s Chris Dorman legged out a check-swing, leadoff chopper to the right side, beating the off-balance throw of Hartley, the second baseman, by a step.

Ron Jones, a freshman right-hander from Jacksonville who pitched the final two innings of the day, was surprised to learn that a no-no was even in the works.

“I honestly didn’t know that,” Jones said.

“We were up by two. I just wanted to go out there and get ahead in the count, throw strikes, get ground balls and get outs.”

The Panthers (0-2), a club team that dressed just nine players, went on to make a game of it. They left runners on second and third when Jones buried a 2-2 curveball in the dirt and got Craven’s Taylor Jackson to chase it to end the game.

The Lancers scored an unearned run in the third and went up 2-0 in the fifth on Butt’s RBI single.

Aside from what he described as a few “common errors” at the plate, such as poor two-strike approaches and not using the opposite field, Wine said he was pleased. The players will go to work on hitting Monday in advance of Saturday’s Region X opener against Wilkes Community College.

“We can fix those things,” Wine said. “A lot of it’s the mental approach that we have.

“These things happen early in the season. The hitting is always a little bit behind the pitching.”

R.J. Morgart (1-0), a right-hander, struck out five of the six men he faced in two innings of relief to earn the Game 2 win. He and Jones conspired with starter Justin Godette and relievers Bill Clark and Logan Deaver on the shutout.

Sophomore right-hander Hunter Jenkins (1-0) pitched a perfect second inning in the by-committee opener.

Jones, who was home-schooled as a senior but played three years at White Oak High School before that, said the season’s first day went well overall.

“The bats were better than I expected,” Jones said. “The defense was good, the offense was good, the pitching was good. Everything played out like it should’ve.”

David Hall can be reached at (252) 559-1086 or at dhall@freedomenc.com.