Middle Creek baseball downs Northern Durham

Middle Creek baseball faces a crucial game Friday at Southwest Wake Athletic Conference leader Holly Springs, but Mustangs coach Wesley King didn’t consider opting out of Wednesday’s non-conference makeup date with Northern Durham.

“Northern Durham always plays tough, and it’s a fun game for us,” King said. “They’re a little down this year, but they compete no matter what. They always give us good looks,”

Middle Creek beat the Knights 10-4 after scoring six runs in the second and four in the fourth, but King got what he wanted out of the game in way not expected.

He kept his team together for a long postgame chat that included criticizing their play at the end of the game. The Mustangs led 10-1 and were in position to close out the game with the 10-run mercy run rule, but runners were left on base and Northern Durham scored two in the fifth and one in the sixth.

“I felt we had two good offensive innings, but we took our foot off the pedal,” King said. “We got complacent in the box and started taking bad swing. I don’t think we pitched great. We could have closed out the game earlier. I told our kids we’ve got to make sure we’re ready to play seven innings Friday. If we don’t play seven innings against Holly Springs, we’re in trouble.”

Middle Creek junior Wade Chandler was 2-of-4 with three RBIs and junior Ryan Chasse was 2-of-3.

For Northern Durham, Jordan Snow was 3-of-4 and James Betts 1-of-1.

This story was originally published April 20, 2017 at 11:10 AM with the headline "Middle Creek baseball downs Northern Durham."