East Forsyth-Wilmington Laney set to roll today at Doak Field in Raleigh

NCHSAA 4-A Baseball State Championship Series in Raleigh at N.C. State’s Doak Field…..

East Forsyth(22-8) vs. Wilmington Laney(19-9)

from www.nchsaa.org:

The NCHSAA 4-A series will get underway on Friday(TODAY) at Doak Field on the campus of North Carolina State University. All the series are best-of-three games, and each of the teams in the finals survived best-of-three regional championship series.

Wilmington Laney (19-9) won the Eastern title last weekend, beating Lee County two games to one, but the Western representative wasn’t decided until Tuesday night due to rain as East Forsyth finally downed T.C. Roberson 7-2 in the third game of that series.

Luke Tendler paces the Laney attack in a variety of offensive categories, with a .575 batting average and a whopping 897 slugging percentage to go with 14 doubles and four homers. Dallas Perdue leads the Vikings pitching staff in wins with six.

East Forsyth (23-8) has gotten excellent play from shortstop Evan Orenstein, who is batting .382 with eight homers, has served in the closer’s role and then made his only start on the mound on Tuesday night to pitch the clinching win over Roberson. The Eagles have several other long ball threats, including Garrett Robinson and Luke Dunlap with nine homers each.

from Mason Linker at the Winston-Salem Journal and CLICK HERE for the complete article, here is the skinny on EF-WL….(There is a lot to read in Mason’s masterpiece.)

Very little has gone wrong for East Forsyth during the NCHSAA 4-A baseball playoffs.

The Eagles have had exceptional pitching performances, have played mostly error-free defense and have hit well up and down the lineup.

Now, all East needs to do to bring home the school’s first state baseball title is win two games this weekend in Raleigh.

East Forsyth (22-8) will play Wilmington Laney (19-9) at 8 p.m. today in Game 1 of the best-of-three championship series at N.C. State’s Doak Field. Game 2 is scheduled for 2 p.m. Saturday, and Game 3, if needed, will be at 5 p.m. or 8 p.m. Saturday.

Coach Allen Plaster of East isn’t concerned about his team switching to a higher gear to win the title.

“I am more worried about our kids continuing to do what they have been doing, because if we do that, I think we have a very good chance to win,” Plaster said.

And why shouldn’t he?

Pete Schultz (8-2, 1.71 ERA) and Shane Dickerson (8-3, 2.52) haven’t needed relief during their combined six playoff starts, and Evan Orenstein — called on Tuesday in the Western Regional’s final game — went seven innings in a 7-2 win over big-hitting Asheville Roberson.