As New Hanover head baseball coach John Thomas said, “We buried ourselves starting 1-2 in the conference.  There are a lot of games left, but we’re going to have to dig out of this hole if we want to make the playoffs. “

On Wednesday, the Wildcats faced non-conference opponent New Bern, which took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first, but never led again as New Hanover pulled away late for the 11-1 win.

While it didn’t help their playoff prospects like a league game would have, Coach Thomas said he was proud of how his guys hit.  Bradley Fleck was 3-3 with a couple of runs batted in, Jordan Betts 3-4 with 2 RBI, Ryan Gause 2-4 and Matt Brown had two RBI in the Wildcat attack.  Hopefully for New Hanover, the hot hitting will carry over into league play.

After falling behind in the top of the first, New Hanover manufactured two runs in bottom of the inning and Bradley Fleck, who made his first start on the mound, helped his own cause with a two run single in the fourth inning.  The Cats had loaded the bases with nobody out, but after a pop out and a strikeout, Fleck delivered the big two out hit.

New Hanover stretched the lead to 6-1 in the fifth as Allen King scored on a Betts RBI single and John Nasuti dashed home on a perfect suicide squeeze bunt by Matt Brown.

The Wildcats plated five runs in the bottom of the sixth inning, giving them the 11-1 lead and thus winning by the 10 run rule.

Of his starting and winning pitcher Bradley Fleck, Coach Thomas said, “He did a great job.  He was around the strike zone and got a lot of ground ball outs.”