Pitching is solid

but who will catch?
By Steve Behr
sports@wataugademocrat.com

MORGANTON — Watauga’s pitching has been pretty solid lately.

All of their top four pitchers — Tyler Moore, Austin Story, Jon Sharpe and Ethan Moyer — have ERA’s well under 4.00. In fact, Moyer’s 3.50 ERA is the highest for those who have at least four appearances this season.

Finding a catcher has been somewhat difficult.

None of the pitchers have shown any sign of injury. Even Will Dicus, who has suffered bone cancer, has a 4.20 ERA and went five innings in the Pioneers’ 3-2 win over West Wilkes last Wednesday.

Keeping catchers healthy has been a different story. Things were going along fine until Adam Church injured his thumb at East Burke.

Church, a junior, leads the team in hitting with a .333 average. He had been hitting the ball hard up to his injury, but has missed the Pioneers’ last three games.

“Hopefully we’ll get Church back soon,” Pioneers coach Pete Hardee said. “We hope to get him swinging the bat by the end of next week. It’s heeling pretty well, so we hope to get him back as soon as we can.”

Watauga’s catching corps took another hit Friday night at Freedom when Jake Wallace had some soreness in his knee and had to leave the game after the second inning. Trey Lowder, who had started catching during practice earlier in the week, had to play behind the play for real in Watauga’s 12-3 over the Patriots.

“I respect them a lot for doing what they do,” Lowder said of catchers. “It was fun tonight.”

Lowder started Friday’s game in right field. He has one of the strongest arms on the team, which was one of the reasons he was asked to be the emergency catcher.

“Lowder’s got as good a shot to second as anybody,” Pioneers coach Pete Hardee said. “He had a little more trouble keeping the ball in front.”

Hardee said Wallace could have played the entire game behind the plate if it was necessary. Instead, Hardee gave Wallace the night off since the Pioneers led 8-1 by the bottom of the third inning.

“Jake Wallace has a little meniscus problem,” Hardee said. “He’s had it for a while. It can happen at any time. It can even happen when he’s not catching. He just has to ice it and get a little rest on it and hopefully he’ll be OK. It’s not something, I think, will keep him out.”