WHS opens regional championship series tonight at North Lenoir

By DAN BISER
Sports Editor

Robbie Penny’s right arm was again ridden for all it was worth and the bat of Lloyd Enzor answered the call Tuesday night.

With Penny striking out 12 batters and carrying a no-hitter into the final innng, and Enzor smashing a resounding walk-off double that scored Michael Wright from first base with two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning, the Wolfpack kept its state 2A baseball title hopes alive with 4-3 fourth-round victory over the South Lenoir Blue Devils at Legion Stadium.

“This is a great win,” Brett Harwood. “We made it a little tough on ourselves to get it, but it is still a great win.”

Whiteville (22-5) will take on two-time defending state 2A champion North Lenoir (25-3) tonight at 7 at the North Lenoir field (near LaGrange) in the opening game of a best-of-three series for the Eastern N.C. 2A Regional championship. North Lenoir advanced Tuesday with a 10-0 victory over Cedar Ridge. The North Lenoir squad has outscored its oppositon by a total of 34-1 in its four playoff games to date.

Whiteville, which is back in the Eastern N.C. finals for he first time since 2002, fell behind 1-0 in the first inning when the East Central Conference champion South Lenoir team took a 1-0 lead following a WHS error, a passed ball and wild pitch.

Whiteville tied the score in the third inning when Quan Gaddy reached base on a fielder’s choice, stole second and raced home following a single to left field by Penny.

the Wolfapck took the lead in the fourth inning when Tyrone McKoy led off with an infield single and later scored on a sacrifice fly to rightfield by Trey Nye.

Gaddy led off the fifth inning with his second hit of the night, stole second and scored on a single to center by Enzor to make the score 3-1.

South Lenoir added a run in the sixth inning when Lee Taylor’s fly ball to left field was misplayed by Gaddy. Taylor later scored from third on a fielder’s choice ground-out.

In the seventh, inning South Lenoir No. 9 hitter Adam Newman broke Penny’s no-hitter bid with a single to right, and Trey Smith singled to left on out later. The Blue Devils loaded the bases when Penny hit SL pitcher Brad Jones with a pitch, and Newman scored from thirdwhen the Wolfpack came up just short of converting a double play from second to first to tie the score. Penny struck out Taylor to get out of the inning.

Jones, who struck out 11 WHS batters for the night, got Gaddy to ground out to first and Penny to pop out to shortstop to open the bottom of the seventh.

Wright, who Jones had struck out twice earlier in the game, drove a single to center before Enzor stepped to the plate and drilled a 2-1 fastball deep to left center to easily score Wright.

“I was looking for the fastball, and that’s what I got,” said the Wolfpack junior catcher. “We really needed that run.”

Harwood said that Jones is was one of the best pitchers his team had gone against this year.

“We beat a real good pitcher,” Harwood said. “He has given up very few walks this year and he really goes after the batters. Our guys did a good job of hanging in there against him.”

Whiteville last met the North Lenoir Hawks in the third round of the 2005 state playoffs . North Lenoir won 10-0 en route to its first of two state titles.

Jones and Killette; Penny and Enzor.