Wendell — The 2008 East Wake baseball team has seven returning seniors and one sophomore from the 2007 Warrior team that finished second in the Great Neuse River Conference and made the state playoffs for the first time since 1989.

East Wake sent five players from the 2007 team on to play college baseball.

Only three of the returning players saw a significant amount of playing time on last year’s team.

There are two returning senior outfielders, Drew Alford and Matt Dickens, and sophomore shortstop Parker Roach.

"We will be very inexperienced in the infield, at catcher, and on the mound,” head coach Kerry Kincaid said. “We lost our two primary starting pitchers, Joe Wagstaff and Justin Diener.”

Both Wagstaff and Diener have gone on to play at Louisburg College and UNC Wesleyan, respectively.

Kincaid said the two, along with a couple other seniors, combined for about 90 percent of the innings last season.

"We will not have one or two primary pitchers this year but we will rely on a lot of different pitchers,” Kincaid said. “Our pitching rotation will include, Drew Alford, Sean Anders, Matt Dickens, Greg Jones, Eric Hardin, Matt Hunichen, David Lanier, Grant McGlothin, Justin O’Brien, Parker Roach, and Adam Stephenson.”

The other returning senior players are Anders, Joey Barron, O’Brien, Stephenson and Jon West.

The rest of the 2008 East Wake roster includes Hunichen (a senior transfer from Clayton High School) who according to Kincaid is a nice addition because he can play anywhere on the field.

Juniors include Shane Egan, Jones, Lanier and McGlothin.

Sophomores include Garrett Johnson, Hardin, Nate Lusk.

“East Wake is also very fortunate to have Chad Smith as the new junior varsity coach and Chris Duty and David Kimball as volunteer assistant coaches,” Kincaid said. “We are very fortunate to have good players but more importantly these are fine young men that represent both the junior varsity and varsity teams. They come to practice ready to work hard every day.”

Kincaid said the coaching staff has high expectations for this year’s East Wake baseball team.

“We would also like to thank the Wendell and Zebulon Parks and Recreation Programs and the Eastern Wake community for your support of the East Wake baseball program. The future of the East Wake baseball program looks very bright for years to come,” Kincaid said.