Casbarro key to Southern Wayne baseball’s late-season push

Southern Wayne’s streaky season has the Saints right in the thick of the Eastern Carolina 3A/4A Conference standings, and coach Trae McKee is looking to reinvigorate his team’s offense as the spring winds to a close.

“We’re struggling scoring runs right now,” McKee said, referring to a midseason scoring drought that lasted 23 innings. “We’ve just got to cross home plate some way somehow.”

McKee said he can’t explain the team’s offensive hiccups, but he knows his Saints (9-10, 4-5) are a few adjustments away from regaining their early season mojo.

“We were swinging the bats effectively and consistently throughout the lineup early,” he said. “We have not done that lately.”

Throughout the season, the Saints have depended heavily on Jack Casbarro, who pitches and is also one of McKee’s best offensive weapons on top of his “go-to guy.”

Casbarro is hitting .413 on a squad that averages .273 collectively. He also has 13 stolen bases in 15 tries and has struck out 27 batters in 30 innings, going 4-2 on the mound with a 3.27 ERA.

“He’s our catalyst, and he does get us going,” McKee said, noting that while the entire team has struggled behind the plate recently. “It’s coming.”

McKee’s team has three games left in the season. Getting above .500 might be the ticket toward earning one of the final 3A playoff spots.

“It’s contagious one way or the other,” he said, explaining that his players know they need to be more disciplined at the plate. “It’s just a matter of making our minds up that’s the approach we’re going to take.”

This story was originally published April 22, 2017 at 6:53 PM with the headline "Casbarro key to Southern Wayne baseball’s late-season push."