FAYETTEVILLE — Dan Poland wasn’t really surprised when Nich Carte asked for the ball last Friday against Class AAA opponent Woodrow Wilson.

Fayetteville baseball’s first-year coach hadn’t planned on using Carte, not so soon into the senior’s comeback from a concussion. But Carte showed he was ready to play the leadership role expected of him.

“We were running out of pitching and he said, ‘Let me throw a couple of innings,’” Poland said.

The outing lasted longer than that. Carte went the distance, striking out five Flying Eagles in the Pirates’ 9-3 win. It was a big victory for Fayetteville, but more important was what it meant for Carte.

Just two weeks earlier, Carte was on the floor of Charleston’s Civic Center, where he and his basketball teammates were battling Parkersburg Catholic in the Class A state quarterfinals. The Pirates were down 21-20 late in the game when Carte was involved in a violent situation with a Parkersburg Catholic player.

“It was a really physical game, and from what I have heard,” started Carte, who does not remember the play, “me and one of their kids locked arms, he flung me over top of his body and my head bounced off the floor.”

But that wasn’t all. When the Parkersburg Catholic player fell, he landed on Carte, causing his head to hit the hardwood again. Then, another player landed on Carte, forcing his head to the floor a third time.

“The next thing I remember is looking up at the scoreboard and seeing there were 3 minutes and 24 seconds left in the ballgame,” Carte said.

Fayetteville narrowly fell to the favored Crusaders, but the status of their senior leader meant more than the game.

Carte was diagnosed with a level 3 concussion and next sprain. But, the next day, he was wearing his No. 4 baseball jersey and a pair of tan cargo shorts on an unseasonably warm day, watching the Fayetteville baseball team pick up an 11-10 victory over county rival Oak Hill. But it would be 14 days before Carte would get back on the diamond.

He was 2-for-4, including a game-tying double in the Pirates’ 8-7 win over Westside last Friday.

“If our fence didn’t have a hole in left center, he would have had the game-winning double,” Poland said. “But the ball went under the fence and the guy had to go back to third.”

Thus far, Carte’s two games back have been stellar. He held Woodrow to three hits in his first mound appearance.

“He hit one guy and walked one, but he threw strikes,” Poland said. “I asked him after the fifth inning if he wanted to come out, but he said he wanted to finish it out.”

“At that point in the game, I just wanted to finish it off,” Carte said. “I just needed to locate my fastball and change up speeds with my curveball. That helped me out a lot.”

Carte’s return — not to mention that of the six other guys who were with the basketball team — could have made for an easy decision for Poland. But in their absence, young players, including the likes of freshmen Aaron Krise (catcher), Jake Holland (infielder) and Brian Gore (outfielder), played beyond their years.

“I told the younger guys to make the decision hard for me,” Poland said. “Make it hard for me to put those (older) guys back in.”

Actually, it probably wasn’t a difficult decision at all. While veterans such as Carte, Drew Weis and Jon Paul Blankenship are leading the way, Krise, Holland and Gore have not relinquished their roles.

The Pirates have won nine of their first 10 games with this youth/veteran mix, including three in their final at-bat.

Young or experienced, the players feed off each other.

“We put a lot of trust into each other,” Carte said. “We’re just the type of guys that, if one person hits the ball, then everybody does. We do everything as a team.”

Carte says he feels like he is behind where he needs to be because of the extended time off. But the young players have given every reason to believe the team will be fine until he catches up.

“They have played big time in (the basketball players’) shoes,” Carte said. “They have stepped in and we are pretty much where we need to be.”

— E-mail: gfauber@

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