ICARD — Watauga’s baseball team has taken on many different opponents this season. The one they could not beat Friday was Mother Nature.

After getting two complete innings of their game with East Burke in the scorebook, the Pioneers will have to finish the rest of the game Monday night because of heavy lightning that struck in a storm that hit the Burke County area.

East Burke leads the game 3-2, but Watauga’s Cal Hardee will be batting with a 1-1 count and with one out.
The restart is scheduled for 7 p.m.

Hardee, Watauga’s starting pitcher, struggled in the first inning against the Cavaliers, who picked up three runs on three straight hits and a walk. Hardee settled down in the second inning by not giving up a run. His coach, Pete Hardee, would like to see Cal Hardee return to the mound if possible, especially since Jon Sharpe is expected to start Tuesday at home against Alexander Central.

“We’ll probably stay with Cal,” Pete Hardee said. “He bounced back pretty well. I really want to give Jon Sharpe his full rest going into Tuesday, so we’ll probably stay with Cal.”

Pete Hardee was unsure if East Burke’s ace, Corey Rhoney, would return to the mound after pitching the first two innings Friday. Rhoney set the Pioneers down in order in the first inning and struck out Watauga’s first two batters, but walked Trey Lowder and then East Burke made an error on a ball hit by Phil Gordon.

Chris Shelton delivered a two-out, two-run double to pull Watauga to within 3-2.

“That hit by Chris Shelton was huge for us,” Hardee said. “It kind of gave our team a little confidence going against Rhoney. We’ve struggled against him so much, so it’s good to have more confidence if he’s on the mound.”

Alexander Central is the final game of the Northwestern 4-A Conference schedule the Pioneers have before the conference tournament next week. Hardee may try to add a non-conference game toward the end of the week if possible, so the Pioneers don’t go into the NWC tournament not playing at least for a week.

He said possible opponents include North Davidson, Mount Tabor, T.C. Roberson or Providence. Watauga played all four teams on the road this year, but none of those teams played in Boone.

“We’ll try to get one of those teams to come here,” Hardee said.