By Brad Greer

There is an old adage in baseball that good pitching will shut down good hitting most of the time. That was the case Tuesday afternoon  as North Delta blanked Central Holmes 9-0 to take game one of the best-of- three series in the opening round North A playoffs.

Game two was played yesterday at Lexington with the result unavailable at press time. A North Delta win would clinch the series while a victory by Central Holmes would force a deciding game three at 5:30 today at North Delta.

Jim Tom Copeland got the start on the hill for the Green Wave and hurled a masterful complete game three-hit shutout, striking out 13 and walking one, all this against a club that came into the playoffs hitting over .400 as a team. The only hits off Copeland were a pair of doubles by Hunter Blane, a single off the bat of Ricky Wenstead in the third inning and a walk to Gaddy Terry in the fifth.

“We did not have much of a scouting report on them because we didn’t know who they have played. We talked to Delta about them but that is it. Their number three and four hitters are pretty good and can hit the ball. I just tried to keep them off balance pretty much throughout the game,” said Copeland, who threw only 97 pitches on the night. “I had all my pitches working today, the curveball, my two-seam (fastball) and I threw a changeup in there every now and then. By winning this game the pressure is all on them now. We just have to go down there Thursday and finish the job at hand,” said Copeland, who helped his own cause at the plate by going 1-for-4 and scoring two runs.

North Delta (12-5) loaded the bases in the first inning off Trojan starting pitcher Jacob Ainsworth but could not capitalize on the opportunity as Geri Lamm, who led off with a single was forced out at home on a groundout by Austin Gant for the second out. Ainsworth then got Bateman Greenlee on a groundout to retire the side.

But two innings later however, Ainsworth would not be as fortunate however as the Green Wave loaded the sacks again on three straight walks. Ethan Taylor greeted reliever Wenstead with a single that produced two runs. After a sacifice bunt by Gant that advanced runners to second and third, Greenlee slapped a single to left that scored Copeland and Taylor for a 4-0 lead. John Cody Dalrymple put runners on first and second with his second hit of the game.

Following a popup by Hunter West for the second out, freshman Bailey Gurkert delivered a RBI single to drive home courtesy runner Ethan Waldrip for the final run of the inning.

North Delta tacked on three more runs on three hits in the fourth for a 8-0 lead. Michael Magee, Copeland, and Taylor led off the rally with singles to once again load the bases. Wenstead then preceded to walk three out of the next four batters to force in runs.

While the Green Wave circled the bases, Copeland was mowing down hitters by fanning two or more Trojans in five of the seven innings.

North Delta tacked on the final run in the fifth as Magee led off with a walk, stole second and went to third on an error by the catcher and then later scored on yet another error.

The Green Wave collected 12 hits on the night, all singles, were led by Taylor’s three hits followed by Lamm, Dalrymple and Gurkert with two hits each.

“I thought we were very aggressive at the plate tonight. We did not let too many fastballs go by that we were not going to take a good cut at, “ said North Delta head coach Stoney Stone. “Once we get two strikes we like for them to tone our swings down and put the ball in play. I think we struck out one time tonight so I am very pleased with that.”

While Stone said winning the first game was key, there is definitely more work to be done.

“You always want to win that first game but do not want to go into the second game over confident and thinking it is going to be a easy. We just have to go down there and play like we are capable of playing and see what happens from there,” said Stone.