BAKER, W.Va. — It’s a 2016 East Hardy baseball team full of athletes used to winning.
All 10 starters (including the DH) were also members of East Hardy’s football team this past season, which advanced to the state championship game and ended its season with a crushing loss to Magnolia.
Following that setback, the focus quickly shifted to baseball for many of East Hardy’s standouts, looking to finish what they came just short of accomplishing on the football field.
“The Monday after the football championship game – we started talking about making a run at a baseball championship,” said East Hardy coach Chad Williams, also the school’s football coach. “It’s pretty much the same kids out there and it carries right over, without a doubt.”
The Cougars, which last made the state tournament in 2012 (runners-up to Madonna), returned their top five hitters and top three pitchers from last year’s team, vaulting the usual high expectations for the program.
“Ultimately, that’s the goal,” Williams said of a potential state tournament berth. “That’s where we want to be. No one on our roster has ever played in it, but that’s the goal. We want to put ourselves into a position to where we go down there and whatever team gets hot at the right time is going to win it.”
Junior Corey McDonald, also the school’s quarterback in football, leads the Cougars on the mound and at the plate, serving as the Cougars’ ace, while hitting .545 with five home runs.
“A lot of the same stuff that makes Corey good in football, makes him good in baseball,” Williams said. “He is constantly wanting the ball and he’s a flat-out competitor.
“When you’re a left-hander on the mound with a little bit of a drop-down, three-quarter delivery, that messes with high school hitters,” he continued. “His ball has a lot of movement on it. At the plate, he’s hitting with a lot of confidence right now.”
Senior Bryce Strawderman, first team all-state last year, is hitting .500 on the season and is the No. 2 on the mound. Sophomore Brett Tharp is batting .476 on the year with three home runs and also is a dependable option on the mound. Junior Austin Whetzel was also first team all-state a year ago, while catcher Jesse Miller has been strong behind the plate and is hitting over .400 on the season.
“The biggest strength right now is the fact that 1-9 in the lineup, we’re hitting the ball,” Williams said. “I would put our top three guys on the mound up with anybody’s top three. The biggest area we need to improve is our defense. We’ve given up a lot of unearned runs and made way too many errors.”
It was McDonald who picked up the win on the mound Wednesday night as the No. 7 Cougars defeated No. 2 Pendleton County 8-7.
“That was a great ballgame,” Williams said. “Over the last several years, it seems like every time we play Pendleton County, it’s a close ball game. We jumped up 8-1 and hit the ball really well.
“Things kind of fell apart in the sixth inning and Pendleton County hit the ball like a team like they have is going to do,” he continued. “We were fortunate to escape the sixth inning still having the lead. And then Brett Tharp came in and closed it out in the seventh.”
McDonald also picked up a win last week over rival Moorefield, throwing a complete game one-hitter with 15 strikeouts in a 5-0 East Hardy win.
The Cougars’ 7-6 record is also deceiving as all of those losses have come against Class AAA opponents (and upper division out-of-state matchups).
“I don’t really believe in filling a schedule up with wins,” Williams said. “We try to play as many AAA’s as we can to raise that level of competition, so that when you get to the tournament, you know that you won’t see anyone better than what you’ve seen half of the season.”
East Hardy’s path to the tournament, though, is always brutal coming out of Region 2 in Class A. The region has four teams ranked this week in the MetroNews baseball poll, including No. 2 Pendleton County and No. 3 South Harrison.
“It’s like that every year,” Williams said. “There are five teams throughout our region who have been ranked at some point in the top 10.”