By Brandon Hall

Director of Scouting, PBR NC

Follow us on Twitter: @PrepBaseballNC

 

A year ago as the high school season opened, coaches and players were dealing with rain, wet fields, and a lack of prep time on their fields.  As 2017 opened, players have been dealing with late spring like conditions, with temperatures in the mid-70’s for much of the past week in the Charlotte area.  When Charlotte Christian arrived at Metrolina Christian Academy for opening day, mid-60’s with a little wind felt cool.  But it did not really matter as live action was here and everyone was ready to go.

 

Charlotte Christian would use a quick strike offense, that showed patience at the plate to build at 10-1 lead after 5 innings of play.  Christian pitchers limited the Metrolina offense for much of the day.  The game was called after five, due to darkness.

 

Metrolina Christian sent SR, RHP James Decker to the bump.  The tall, slender righty has done some work in the off-season as the fastball ramped up to 86, settling in the 83-84 range.  The slider has tightened some, working 74-75 with a short dart to the glove side. 

 

Decker managed to work out of his own jam in the first, hitting one batter and walking another.  A couple of fly balls bailed him out but the jam was a glimpse of the trouble the Charlotte Christian lineup can provide. 

 

Christian got on the board in the 2^nd and 3^rd with 4 runs in each inning.  A balanced lineup, mixed with upper-classman and under-classman did a good job of attacking pitches in the strike zone.  Nick Suarez (1B, 2017, Lenoir Rhyne commit) started the offense with a single back up the middle on an 84mph fastball down in the zone.  Two walks brought the top of the order back around, where Nick Murrer (2B, 2017, Lenoir Rhyne commit) doubled to right field on a 3-1 fastball, elevated.  All told Charlotte Christian hitters would use 8 hits and 7 walks to pile up the 10-1 victory.

 

Charlotte Christian used two arms to stimey the Metrolina offense.  SR RHP Scotty Wallace (Wofford commit) worked an efficient 3 innings, striking out 5 and walking 2.  Wallace’s fastball bumped 87 early from a repeatable delivery.  Following Wallace was SO LHP JT Killen.  Killen worked 2 innings, fanning 5 and walking 2, with just one hit against.  The fastball jumped on hitters.  While command should continue to improve, there is definite upside to the strong lefty.

 

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	R	H	E
CCS	0	4	4	0	2	X	X	10	8	1
MCA	0	0	0	0	1	X	X	1	1	1

 

Win – Scottie Wallace	Loss – James Decker
Leading Hitters: JaJaun Wright (2 hits)	Noah Jordan (1)

 

 

For more scores and action from across NC see our Around the Bases blog

For in-depth player analysis from this game and others, see our NC HS Scout Blog