DURHAM – Pitching on short rest, Charlie Collins ’24 made it a dreadfully long afternoon for Durham Academy.
Either looking or swinging, the Cavaliers never caught up with Christ School’s ace – Charlie struck out 11 batters in the first six innings of Saturday’s 9-0 shutout win.
“We’d really been building him up for this game. We wanted to see how he’d do on short rest (after starting Tuesday’s 12-1 win at Carmel Christian), even though we really hadn’t done that yet this year,” Greenies coach Wesley King said.
“So, we cut him loose and Charlie really came out sharp and attacked the zone.”
Leadoff Matthew Hammel ’23 drove in a team-high four RBIs, but it was the bottom half of the lineup that stood out Saturday. Jake Gravley ’24, Jakob Iwanek ’24, Wells Alderman ’26, and Will Walker ’25 each had two hits. Jakob stole three bases and was equally as effective as Charlie in his one inning on the mound with two strikeouts, one walk, and no hits.
The Greenies must now wait to see where they will be seeded for the NCISAA 4-A state playoffs.
Christ School has never won a state championship in baseball, but this team has as good a chance as any, having won 11 of its last 14 games and defeated two teams (High Point Wesleyan Christian Academy and Rabun Gap) that were ranked No. 1 in the state at some stage this season.
“We were just talking about it. We’ve played the best of the best and we’ve competed,” Coach King said.
“We’ve had some letdowns along the way and sometimes things didn’t work out. That’s going to happen with high school kids. But we feel good. We wanted to be playing well as we enter the postseason and we think our resume speaks for itself.”