DAILY MAIL SPORTSWRITER
ONA - Mike Carte stood in the middle to stress his message whilethe South Charleston players huddled around on a night so cold thattheir collective breath looked like a smoke stack.
Carte knew it was 10:30 p.m. on a school night 35 minutes awayfrom home. He knew it was frigid to the point knees ached.
He just had to make sure the Black Eagles didn't miss sight of theseason's ultimate goal, despite Tuesday's 7-4 setback in the MountainState Athletic Conference title game to Cabell Midland.
They want to get to Appalachian Power Park.
"That's what we just talked about out there," said Carte of theJune 1-4 state tournament. "We talked about what it takes to get tothe state tournament and what you have to do to get the starttournament is play all four phases of the game well."
South Charleston's downfall Tuesday was four errors - two each byChris Hunt and Joey Jobst.
"We can't give teams extra outs and make it to the new park,"Carte said.
There's no doubt making the state tournament is special. But thisone just might be more meaningful. Since most high school kids aren'tnecessarily history buffs, playing at Watt Powell Park isn't quite asappealing as the new $23 million ballpark.
"These guys are wanting to get to the new ballpark," Carte said.
Cabell Midland Coach Tracy Brumfield downplayed the extraincentive, though.
"To me I don't care where they are playing it at," said Brumfield,whose second-ranked Knights (20-3) lost to this same South Charlestonteam last week. "It's the state championship game.
"It could be in a cornfield. As long as we're there and we canplay in it, that's all that matters to me."
There's a good chance one of these two teams will make it. CabellMidland might just have a tougher road.
Brumfield's team is saddled in a region that includes No. 1Huntington, No. 6 St. Albans and No. 9 Hurricane. That's not tomention Nitro, last year's Class AAA champion Ripley and a SpringValley squad that already beat the Knights once this season.
On the other hand, when sectional play begins next week, SouthCharleston appears to have a favorable road - at least on paper.
Yet, Carte won't say it. That's not his style.
"In year's past we've had to go through Cabell Midland ... Logan,Hurricane," Carte said. "We are out of that region now, but we stillhave to play ball.
"The teams that are in our region are highly capable of beatingus. In fact, we've lost several games to teams in our region."
If eighth-ranked South Charleston (17-8-1) gets past GeorgeWashington's one-win team in the sectionals, then it could faceCapital, Greenbrier East or Beckley in the regionals. While none ofthose teams are ranked, Carte isn't ready to predict a statetournament berth.
"We've lost to Greenbrier East. We've lost to Beckley," he said."And Capital is highly capable of beating anybody, especially when(Kyle) Blank is pitching. On paper it's a different region, but itstill poses a lot of obstacles."
The MSAC posed a lot of obstacles too. In its quirky tournamentpairings, South Charleston reached the second consecutive title game,while the state's top-ranked team - Huntington - played for 11thplace.
"We've lost it both times, but the MSAC is such a ruggedconference that getting here is such a difficult task," Carte said.
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South Charleston pitcher Ryne Holestine is expected to throw in agame over the weekend for the first time since March after injuringhis elbow. When healthy, Holstine is No. 2 behind ace Chris Hunt, whoBrumfield called one of the top three pitchers in the state.
Hunt threw a one-hit shutout against a Cabell Midland team thatwas without three starters last week.
"I personally think both teams are pretty evenly matched," Cartesaid. "We made some errors tonight that led to their runs. I think ifwe played 10 teams, it might go 5-5."
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