Early in the 2021-22 baseball season, Chatham Central looked as if it were destined for another slightly above-average year, starting 3-5 with narrow losses the Bears felt they could have come away with. But as the spring progressed, the Bears’ young core improved, its senior leadership strengthened and its record proved it, leading the team to a postseason berth as the second-place team in the Mid-Carolina 1A/2A Conference.
The Bears — who finished 14-11 and got what they believe to be an unfair draw with the No. 21 seed in the East region — cruised through the opening three rounds of the playoffs, all on the road, en route to an appearance in the state’s Elite Eight. While Chatham Central was shut-out by the now-two-time defending champion Perquimans Pirates in the fourth round, the Bears surely enjoyed their Cinderella story while it lasted.
This week, the News + Record spoke with Brett Walden, Chatham Central’s fifth-year head coach, nearly two months after his team made its playoff run to discuss the roller coaster of a journey, the ability of his young roster to make such a deep run and the way they’ve already improved for next season.
This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
BRETT WALDEN: We were 3-5 at one point and we played a good schedule, so it’s not like we weren’t playing anybody, but there were some winnable games in there that we let get away. First game of the year at Asheboro, we needed to get two outs and made a couple of mistakes defensively, flipped the lineup over and then the best part of their lineup comes up and that hurt us. But really, through 6 1/3 innings, we outplayed them. We talked after the end of the North Moore series down there (which we lost) and we had a long talk in right field about finishing games — because we led a lot of that game — and we talked about mental toughness and all of that and then they really just came on late.
There were still some moments after that. We lost the Jordan-Matthews game at our place in extra innings having had lots of chances to win before extras, but we left a lot of guys in scoring position. We had a couple of freshmen that really felt like it was on them that we didn’t win that game, so for them to take that kind of ownership that early in their career is a good sign for later.
I thought we were better than a No. 21 seed. Once I saw the RPI during fall and winter sports last year — I thought it would be kind of in line with MaxPreps and it really wasn’t — then I thought there were some issues with the RPI, but that’s the system we’ve got. I thought we were better than a No. 21 seed, I thought we probably should have been somewhere around No. 12, 13 or 14.
The team we drew in the first round, Northwest Halifax, they weren’t really strong, but they had a decent record. We were able to beat them pretty easily, but I knew the East Wake Academy game would be really, really tough in the second round. And it was. We were down for most of the game and had a big sixth inning and then got a few insurance runs in the seventh. Collin Lagenor pitched 5 1/3 innings in relief, I think, that game. We initially were just going to put him in to stop the bleeding and then probably go to Zane Overman, but he just kind of dialed it in and kept us in it and we kind of chipped away and were able to take a late lead and win.
Then, with Roxboro Community’s No. 1 pitcher, we didn’t really know what to expect. The scouting report I’d gotten was really helpful. We knew we were going to get the sidearmed right-hander, so we got Coach Derrick Scott from Bennett to come — he was a sidearmed right-hander — and get the L-screen up close and throw some sidearmed stuff and teach our guys how to approach sidearm. He said, “I’m happy to come and get on top of them with the L-screen and throw it to take the novelty off of it a bit.” I think that really prepared us for what we saw.
Most of the younger guys, I think they just don’t like to lose. I don’t like to lose, so I like guys that don’t like to lose. Joaquin Gordon, for example. He’s a tough kid and he doesn’t like to lose.
It’s pretty cliche at this point, but we kept saying, “Control what you can control.” We were a No. 21 seed, so odds are, we weren’t going to get to play at home, so the reality is that we’ve got to go play on somebody else’s field. What we can control is staying in our routine, which we did. We ate at Crossroads Grill in Siler City on the way out of town, we made sure that we had the same amount of time before the game and on the bus ride. We just tried to try to stay in a routine as much as possible and I guess it worked for us. Some of the guys joked that with the Perquimans game in the fourth round, we didn’t get to stop at Crossroads Grill just because it wouldn’t time out right, we would’ve been eating breakfast. But even with home games, we have a time we have them back at the field if it’s a 7:00 start or a 6:00 or whatever, and I think you see it in the classroom teaching or in coaching. Teenagers need structure and routine.
We’ve got pretty much all of our pitching back this season. Collin Lagenor didn’t pitch much, but when he did in the playoffs, he did a great job, but as far as guys that pitched a ton, the vast majority of our innings pitched are back. Collin hit over .400, had a couple of home runs and led us in RBIs, so he’ll be tough to replace, just the leadership and the toughness behind the plate. Nick Jourdan in right field, he was perfect. I didn’t realize it until I looked at his stats at the end of the year, but he didn’t make a single error out there out of 37 opportunities. And then Colby Williamson, in the last half the season was really good defensively at third base, so we do lose some important pieces, but we do return a lot of production, too. I’m definitely excited to see how they grow over the next couple of years.
You look at Anthony Lopossay, a sophomore, he was 7-1 on the mound and he gave up just a couple of earned runs at Roxboro Community and his ERA went up. Statistically, he was one of the better pitchers in the state this past year. He was right dominant for us and I’m interested to see how much better he gets. It’s the same thing with Matt Murchison. We moved him around a little bit. He played some left field, some second base, he caught a little bit, but we kind of settled on him being the shortstop a little later. I would’ve liked to have had things set earlier, but really it was the second J-M regular-season game, we settled on Matt being the shortstop and he’s probably going to be our shortstop going forward, most likely. He really hit it well, and he’s probably going have to hit in that 2-hole next year, where Collin did this past year. He batted fourth last year, but we’re going to have to have people get on base at the top of the lineup.
I think we’re capable of it. The reality is, the way the playoffs are in North Carolina, the way they’re set up with one game and done, anything can happen. There’s evidence. North Moore was really good all year, but then it lost to the No. 29 seed in the first round. Anything can happen. I think we’re good enough and talented enough and I think we’ve got the pitching to make another run, it just remains to be seen how we react with the target on our back a little bit next year. Returning what we’re returning, on paper, I would think that we’ve got some people’s attention, they know we’re returning a lot, so we’ll just see how we react to that.