Anyone.

Safrit’s still waiting. East didn’t exactly chase Concord — the last-place team in the 3A South Piedmont Conference — out of Staton Field on Tuesday afternoon.

East, the No. 2 team in the state in the latest 3A poll, beat the Spiders 9-1, but didn’t impress Safrit one iota, even though it improved to 8-0 overall and 5-0 in the league.

Safrit‘s not impressed because he remembers the last time one of his teams started 8-0. That was the 1995 state championship team with mashers David Trexler, Travis Goins and Jason Foster — among others. That team didn’t mind if it hurt your feelings, beat you up 22-1 and sent you home to lick your wounds after five innings.

But the current team is awfully young to be so touted. Yesterday, Safrit opened with sophomores — good ones to be sure — at pitcher, catcher, second base, shortstop, designated hitter and left field.

“All we’ve got right now is a tradition ranking,” growled Safrit. “These guys want to come out and play to the level of the competition. I’m telling you, I can’t take it.”

Safrit’s been pleased after perhaps three games this year. A 3-2 win at Piedmont in a game East was supposed to lose; a 7-4 win over Central Cabarrus in which East beat one of the better teams in the state; and a 2-1 win at North Rowan, in which his team came up with huge clutch plays.

Otherwise, Safrit’s been luke-warm or downright disappointed.

Safrit conducted yet another lengthy postgame meeting in the right-field corner last night, and the Mustangs ran several sprints that weren’t to be confused with victory laps.

“Eight games into the season and I’m still trying to figure out a lineup,” fumed Safrit. “We’ve got 22 kids on this team and 18 of them have started. What I want to know is who wants to play. I’m begging them to show me they need to be in there.”

East did get 13 hits, although many were bloops or bleeders. Brian Hatley stroked out three hits, while Brett Peiffer had two, including a two-run rip up the middle that put the Mustangs ahead to stay in the first inning.

The highlight for East was lefty Julian Sides, who pitched six shutout innings, allowing four hits and no walks. It was Sides’ second straight superb start.

“I know we didn’t see their ace,” said Concord coach Chris Lankford. “But we haven’t hit much all year, and that kid kept us off balance.”

“I was real pleased with Julian,” allowed Safrit.

Sides faced a moment of truth in the third inning. Concord (2-6, 0-5) had loaded the bases with one out on Mike Taylor’s single and two errors and had its No. 3 and No. 4 hitters, John Graham and Andy Boyd, at the plate.

But Sides made several big-time pitches on the outside corner to whiff both Spiders.

“The bottom set the table and one big hit puts us back in it,” said Lankford. “It was a key moment in the game.”

“Julian got the two guys out who might have hurt us,” said Safrit. “It was big, because the way we’ve been hitting, we’re always one swing of the bat away from losing a ballgame.”

East was never in serious danger after the third and kept peppering the scoreboard for insurance runs.

Adam Cornelius walked in the second and scored on Hatley’s grounder to make it 4-0.

Cal Hayes Jr. belted a triple to right-center in the fourth and scored on Drew Davis’ sacrifice fly. Andrew Barrier plated a run with a sharp pinch-single in the fifth to make it 6-0.

East tacked on its final three runs in the sixth on hits by Jeremy Alderman, Hatley and Justin Miller. But Concord never quit and made the Mustangs, who went into cruise control pretty early, go the distance. Certainly it was at least a moral victory for the black and gold, who have been as down in this sport as they have been feared in football.

“I heard the comment that Concord hadn’t gone seven innings at East in a long time,” said Lankford, the Spiders’ first-year head coach who led the West Rowan jayvees last season. “But take away a couple of mental mistakes (two third strikes that got past catcher Nick Broome were especially damaging) and we’re right there. The competitor in me isn’t going to be satisfied with a loss. We’re not happy just to compete. We’ve got to move beyond that and believe we can win.”

Safrit, on the other hand, keeps right on winning. But he is keenly aware that his team, for all its reputation, has a long way to go to be anywhere near as good as the pollsters say it is.

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