Another Trophy: Davie Baseball Completes Sweep Of Conference Titles
Published 12:00 am Thursday, May 24, 2012
By Brian Pitts
Davie Enterprise Record
PFAFFTOWN – Another Central Piedmont Conference title up for grabs, another crown for the Davie baseball team.
The high-flying War Eagles blanked North Davidson 6-0 and rushed past West Forsyth 7-1 with a late-game flurry to capture the CPC Tournament last week at tournament host Reagan.
For the first time, the War Eagles have won the regular season and tournament in consecutive years. Now they will try to make noise in the 4-A playoffs. They will host a first-round game on May 11 at 7 p.m., most likely against Butler.
“It’s special,” senior Corey Randall, who is having an historic season as a dominating pitcher and hitter. “Doing it back-to-back years is a pretty good accomplishment.”
Davie had a bye in the first round. In the semifinals against North Davidson, Ryan Foster pitched to his old high standards, giving up three hits in seven scoreless innings and striking out nine as Davie ended No. 5 North’s season at 12-12. North reached the semis with an 8-4 upset of Mt. Tabor.
“They’ve got two big-time arms,” North coach Mike Meadows told The-Dispatch. “Foster is the best pitcher in our conference by far. They’ve got three guys in the middle who can really hit, and the bottom of the lineup has good hitters. They’ve got so many weapons.”
North’s Landon Lassiter is a stud who has signed with North Carolina, and he hit two homers in the first round against Tabor. But Foster set the tone by striking out Lassiter to start the game.
North mounted two ultimately fruitless threats. It loaded the bases with one out in the third. Foster coaxed a popout to catcher Will Beeson and fanned the next batter on three pitches.
North loaded the bases with two outs in the fourth. But second baseman Nick Boswell snared a liner to end the inning.
Foster improved to 7-3 and lowered his ERA to 1.58. Talk about consistency. Last year his ERA was 1.60. He pushed his career record to 20-9, three from John Parker’s record from 1962-65.
“Foster had a lot to do with leaving those runners on,” Meadows said.
When the War Eagles rolled past North in the regular-season meetings, they had the luxury of not facing ace Clyde Tate, who is headed to Appalachian State. Tate toed the rubber for this one, but he allowed eight hits and six runs in 5 1/3.
“Everybody was saying: ‘But we didn’t face Tate,’” Davie coach Mike Herndon said. “About every batter was getting ahead in the count 2-0.”
Nick Boswell (2-3, walk), Foster (1-2, walk, three RBI), W. Beeson (2-3) and Karch Arey (2-3) led the offense as Davie outscored North 25-3 in three meetings.
Boswell extended his hitting streak to six games and raised his average to .385.
W. Beeson had a nondescript junior year, hitting .200 in 10 at-bats while serving as Jacob Barber’s backup. But he continued to flourish as a senior. He’s hit in six of seven, going 11 for 19 over that span. He lifted his average to .403.
“He used to really dive in there …