EDENTON — After having seen Joe Wendle light up the Peninsula Pilots pitching staff for 13 hits in his previous 22 at-bats against the Pilots, Peninsula head coach Hank Morgan decided it was time to try a different approach against the Edenton Steamers second baseman last Thursday.

“Their coach was telling me about it after the game,” Steamers assistant coach Steve Moritz said. “He said they wanted to put a shift on Joey and try to get into his head.”

So Morgan deployed his players toward the right side of second base against the lefthanded-hitting Wendle and challenged him to do something about it.

“First time up, Joey lines a ball over the shortstop’s head for a single,” said Moritz. “Next at-bat, they try to bust one inside on him and Joey drills it down the first-base line for a double.

“Amazing. But that’s what Joey does. He knows what adjustments he has to make and he’s capable of doing them. An ex-big leaguer told me college players who can make adjustments from game-to-game are above-average players. Players who can adjust from pitch-to-pitch become big-leaguers.

“Well, Joey can do it pitch-to-pitch. He does it better than any kid I’ve ever been around. He’s one of the best hitters in the country right now.”

Nobody in the Coastal Plain League will argue that point. Wendle, a rising senior at West Chester University, brought some impressive statistics into Monday's CPL All-Star game in Fayetteville, where he was one of five Edenton players on the National All-Stars roster.

Wendle ranks second in the league in batting (.406), first in runs scored (39) and fourth in RBIs (31). He is also riding a 15-game hitting streak and has hit safely in 28 of his last 29 games.

For the 6-1, 190-pound Wendle, making adjustments is all part of stepping up when he plays against better competition.

While West Chester competes at the Division II level, there’s nothing Division II about the way Wendle is performing against players from larger and more prestigious college programs this summer.

“I’m having a better season in the summer than I did in school, which is kind of a contradiction in itself,” said Wendle, acknowledging that most players see their stats go down in summer leagues because they are using wooden bats instead of the more forgiving metal ones they hit with during the college season.

Throw in the fact that the Lincoln University, Pa. native is facing much better pitching in the CPL than he would at West Chester ...

“And I’m a little surprised myself,” said Wendle, who batted .346 at West Chester this spring.

“I was kinda disappointed in my college season and I thought I could do better. But this has been unbelievable. I’ve been seeing the ball well the whole summer and it seems like every ball I hit is finding a hole somewhere.”

Wendle enjoys finding holes against the big boys.

“I wouldn’t say it is the main thing that drives me.” he said. “But you always want to show you can compete with the players from the bigger schools.”

Wendle, who won 10 varsity letters in baseball, soccer and wrestling at Avon Grove High, said there is a difference between Division I and Division II ball. But in his mind, it’s pretty simple.

“The game is just a lot faster,” he said. “The pitchers are faster, the runners are faster, the ball is hit at you a lot faster. You just have to adjust to the speed of the game. Once you get past that in the first couple of games, you realize it is the same game.

“If you are a competitive person, you try to play to the competition level. Just being around better players helps you. If they run fast, you want to run fast, too. You don’t want to get left behind.”

Actually, Wendle’s been playing “up” against better players all of his life. Older brothers Andy and Ben were Division I players at Villanova and St. Joseph’s, respectively, and there was plenty of competition between the siblings.

“Having two older brothers who were so good obviously influenced my game,”Wendle said. “We were always playing together, competing against each other. And me being the youngest was no excuse to lose, either.

“The good thing is that they were always so willing to help me out.”

What Wendle’s brothers couldn’t help him with were college recruiters. Few were lining up with offers when he graduated.

“But I wasn’t thinking I had to play D1 ball because my brothers did,” he said. “I don’t think I had the same kind of high school career they did. I was also small, about 5-10 and 150 pounds, and I had hurt my elbow wrestling as a junior and missed most of the baseball season.”

West Chester and St. Joe’s were the only schools that offered him anything. While he was somewhat tempted by St. Joe’s Division I status, he settled on West Chester because of its winning tradition.

“I think I made the right choice,” Wendle said. “We’ve had three winning seasons, I have been to a World Series and I’ve gotten to play every game.”

While Wendle was an all-star in the New England Collegiate Summer League last year and a preseason Division II All-American this spring, he wasn’t taken in the June major league draft. He wasn’t surprised. Wendle thinks the pros see him as a bit slow and lacking power.

But he does believe his outstanding season with the Steamers may boost his stock for the 2012 draft.

While Moritz, the Steamers’ hitting coach, isn’t suggesting Wendle will be a big-leaguer, he said he is reminded of a major-league standout every time he sees him play.

“Joey is just like Chase Utley out there,” he said. “He’s a bigger-body second baseman who hits left-handed with a short, quiet swing and hits rockets. Good clubhouse guy.

“He’s Chase Utley in a nutshell.”

Wendle would like that comparison. A life-long Philadelphia Phillies fan, his favorite player just happens to be Utley.