East’s 7-2 victory over Harding in an early matchup of 3A South Piedmont Conference unbeatens wasn’t nearly as dramatic as what happened immediately after the game. That’s when Safrit received a plaque and an ovation from his team and East fans for his 300th win as a varsity baseball coach.

Safrit has gotten to 300 wins in a hurry. Just reaching his mid-40s, he’s in his 17th varsity season. He’s gotten 190 of his victories since returning home to East in 1991. Safrit’s first 110 coaching victories came at South Iredell.

“I had good players at South Iredell and I’ve had good players at East,” said Safrit. “No one wins without players. Anyone who says he can, takes way too much credit.”

Six of Safrit’s wins have come to open the current season. It’s the first time East has started 6-0 since the magical 1995 campaign when Safrit went 29-1 and hung a 3A state championship banner.

As Safrit said, you have to have players, and this season he’s blessed.

Senior Brian Hatley is already 3-0 on the mound. Last night, he went the distance, scattered eight hits, struck out seven and walked just one.

“There are a lot of pitchers out there,” said Safrit. “But Hatley is one of those kids that can finish a ballgame. He’ll always challenge you, and he’ll do it with three quality pitches.”

“Brian throws strikes and hits spots,” said East’s sophomore catcher Drew Davis. “He’s a great pitcher.”

While, Hatley was hitting spots, Davis was hitting baseballs. He broke out of a mini-slump (four hits in his first five game) with three hits. He was lucky on one bloop single, but jarred the ball right on the nose in his other three trips.

“I’ve been struggling. I just went up there and took my hacks,” said Davis.

“We know if we start to hit, we can be a really good team,” added Hatley. “The hitting will come around because we’re concentrating better in batting practice.”

East (4-0 in the SPC) rapped out a dozen hits against the Rams (4-2, 3-1), after failing to log more than seven hits in any of its first five games. Cal Hayes Jr., Hatley and Brett Peiffer had two hits each. None of the Mustang hits were homers, but four were ringing doubles.

East trailed 1-0 after Beau Byrum launched a pitch out of Staton Field in the second inning. But the Mustangs responded with runs in each of their last five at-bats.

Mark Misenheimer’s second-inning single drove in the run that put East ahead to stay.

Hatley doubled in Hayes in the third with a rocket into the left-field corner and scored when Davis’ liner was dropped in center to make it 4-1.

Jonathan Heyer’s sacrifice fly and run-scoring doubles by Bobby Joe Clester and Peiffer plated insurance runs as East slowly eased away. The Mustangs actually threatened to end the game in five innings via the 10-run rule, but Hayes and Chad Sansbury fanned with the bases full in the fifth.

East played sensational defense, with Hayes turning one bad-hop shot to short into a remarkable out and with Sansbury and Adam Cornelius making running catches in the outfield. Jeremy Teague speared a liner at second base with runners aboard.

The biggest defensive play of all came from Davis.

East led 2-1 in the third when Harding’s first two batters reached on a blooper and a Mustang mental mistake on a bunt. Then, with hard-hitting No. 3 man Justin Little at the plate, the baserunners took off on a 2-2 count. But Little swung and missed for the first out and Davis gunned down Michael Smith at third to complete a momentum-swinging double play.

“I like to score runs,” said Safrit, “but right now we’re getting great pitching and playing great defense. I’ve become a pitching and defense guy, because we’ll take wins any way we can get ‘em.”

Just as Safrit been taking nearly four wins out of every five games for the decade that he’s been in charge at East. Safrit’s only lost 50 games at East and 19 of those were in his first two seasons. This could well be his sixth 20-win season as Mustang coach.