Washington’s foray into summer baseball has been a fruitful one. It finished the season with a 10-2-1 mark to win its conference and punch its ticket to the Central Carolina Scholastic Summer League senior-championship tournament, which will be held at Lee County starting today.

The Pam Pack has seen new leaders step up and varsity newcomers rise to the occasion. It’s exactly what coach Kevin Leggett was hoping would happen after the team graduated six seniors from the spring squad.

“We’ve played well. We had a week when we had about four pitchers gone and we still played well that week,” Leggett said. “A lot of guys have stepped up this summer.”

Two of the standouts have been rising seniors Frederick Holscher and Drew Ferguson. Holscher, who has been doing plenty of throwing as the Pam Pack quarterback during football practice, has jumped on just about every opportunity to pitch.

Ferguson has chipped in on the mound, too. He’s also contributed a lot to Washington’s explosive offense.

“Drew has been hitting the ball great and kind of leading our offense,” Leggett said. He added that younger players like Cody Pinkham and Wilson Peed have been strong at the plate, too.

“Fred has had to pitch a lot more this summer with guys out on vacation and things,” Leggett continued. “He’s stepped up. He’s wanted the ball, which is what I wanted from him. There have been times in the past where, on the mound, he may not have wanted it. He’s wanted it this summer, which has been a great thing for him, especially going into next year.”

It’s been a bit of a grueling summer for Holscher and a few others on the team. Many days for him, Ferguson, Cooper Anderson, Hayden Anderson and others have began with a morning football practice and ended with a nighttime baseball game.

“It’s a long day in the summer for them,” Leggett said.

The work has paid off. Washington opens tournament play against Rolesville today at 6 p.m. Winning the tournament is the main objective, but Leggett simply wants to see the Pam Pack hold its own against some of the better competition in the state.

“I want to make sure we’re competitive. I want the guys to have something to show the state that we’ve come a long way from a few years ago,” he said. “The coaches before me had to pull guys off the stands in the summer league. It’s a big step for us. Playing well against some of the bigger schools around Raleigh will be a big step for us and the program.”

Washington spent the summer playing some of the best teams in the immediate area: Conley, New Bern, South Central, Riverside and others. They’ve seen some impressive clubs so far. The hope is that even more stout competition will have them ready for the spring.

“The better the competition we see, the more prepared we are for next year,” Leggett said. “We’ve got a really hard schedule for next year. Our conference is going to be extremely hard. I think it’s a good chance for us to see some even better competition than we may even see next year.”

Should the Pam Pack advance past Rolesville, it will face the winner of Panther Creek and Garner tomorrow at 2 p.m.