Winning mentality fueling Whiteville baseball

WHITEVILLE, NC (WWAY) — June 3, 2011. That was the last time a North Carolina State Championship baseball series didn’t feature the Whiteville Wolfpack. 7 years and four state titles later, the Pack is back and looking to keep the winning tradition alive.

“It’s a mentality,” Whiteville Coach Brett Harwood said. “I think we’ve developed a mentality of winning.”

That winning mentality has translated into physical results for the Whiteville baseball team. For many of these players, they don’t know what it’s like to not be in the state championship.

This includes senior Brooks Baldwin who is only one of two players to play in the state title series all four years of his career at Whiteville.

“It’s not easy,” Baldwin said. “It’s not easy to get there and we work hard every off-season, in-season and it’s definitely tough to get there. Each year is a new year, you can’t take it for granted. People are doubting you every year, but you have to go prove it”

The only other player to make it four times is MacKenzie Gore.

Questions arose when the 2018 season began for the Pack, how could they win without Gore? But doubt quickly disappeared when Whiteville completed an undefeated conference season and made another run in the playoffs.

“It has been rewarding to win, go undefeated in our conference again, win another East championship and get back to a state championship without him,” Coach Harwood said. “I don’t say that lightly because I wish he was here and had another year. But obviously it does prove that we have good players and our program is not built around one big arm or what classification we play in.”

Despite similar successes to years past, this group that has been playing together since they were 8 or 9 says something is not the same this season.

“This year’s team is different than any of the years past,” Whiteville Junior Dylan Lawson said. “I’ve been on varsity for three years and we’re different. We’ve gotten stronger in some areas and in some areas we’re not as good but, this team is individual and we’re a good team.”

The strong core has only grown stronger and now they look to add to their history for themselves, their school and Wolfpack nation.

“I like to see our community get excited,” Coach Harwood said. “I like to see our town with bows up and their windows painted ‘go Wolfpack’.”

“They expect us to be here every year, they expect us to win and we want to prove that we can.” Baldwin said.

Whiteville and Ledford open their series Friday at 5 p.m. in Zebulon, NC.