ELIZABETHTOWN – The East Bladen Eagles new baseball season will begin this week with a trip to Fayetteville to take on Village Christian Academy this Tuesday. The Eagles finished last season with an overall record of 13-12 and they made it to the second round of the NCHSAA 1A East Regional Playoffs. They also finished third in the Waccamaw Conference with a conference record of 8-4. East Bladen participated in a four-inning scrimmage with Fairmont last weekend and prevailed with a 3-2 victory in chilly conditions. They held their opponents to four hits on 16 plate appearances and scraped by on two hits on 14 plate appearances.
The Eagles will have a relatively young squad with three seniors listed on the roster but will also welcome the return of familiar faces from last season’s team. Sophomore Jayce Hatcher is one of those familiar faces who returns this season, he had 12 hits and five RBI’s in his first season with the Eagles last Spring. Junior Davion Lewis also returns for the Eagles as he was an important part of the pitching rotation last season. Lewis struck out 26 of the 113 batters faced and he pitched roughly 24 innings.
The pitching rotation will look different this season with the departure of Jake Futtrell due to graduating. East Bladen will conclude their opening week on the road against West Brunswick this Friday and they’ll play their home opener on March 4th against West Brunswick. They’ll play their cross-county rivals of West Bladen a few days later at home in hopes to avenge last season’s loss. The Eagles first Waccamaw Conference game is slated for March 11th against the South Columbus Stallions. Their final conference games of the season are slated against the defending conference champions of Whiteville on April 14th and 16th.
East Bladen’s final meeting with West Bladen is slated for the first of May. Then the first round of the NCHSAA State Playoffs will begin the following week on Tuesday, May 6th.