All Alone At The Top

The Gryphons are in sole possession of first place of the NEW 6 baseball race after their 1-0 over Wilson Fike Thursday night.

Brian Goodwin, the first batter of the baseball game tonight, hit a grounder up the middle which was backhanded and bobbled by former Southern Nash - now Fike second baseman Brett Allen. It was ruled an error, but with Brian's speed, he may have beat it out for a hit anyway.

Regardless, with one out with Goodwin on third and Collins Cuthrell on first, Mr. RBI comes to the plate for the Gryphons and Ben Fish does what an RBI man is suppose to do. Get the run home.

Fish hit a soft fly ball to left field which was deep enough for Goodwin to trot home with what turned out to be the only run of the night.

Tonight's RBI is No. 67 in the career of senior catcher Fish and he becomes the all-time clutch hitter in Gryphon history. Lead-off hitters are suppose to get on base and Goodwin did that in the first. RBI men drive in runs and Ben did his job.

In three years as a starter, Ben is averaging near an rbi a game, which means his teammates are on base when he comes to bat and he has gotten them home most of the time.

Pitchers who pick colleges teams they want to play for as sophomores are suppose to keep the other team from scoring and Hobbs Johnson, the Gryphon junior lefthander, did his part pitching a gem. A one-hit, 11-strikeout night. Johnson walked three, two men reached on Gryphon errors and the lone hit could only get six Golden Demons on base and only two reached second and one got as far as third.

The Gryphons (13-1. 4-0) squandered a bases-loaded chance in the third without scoring and Goodwin reached third in the fifth. After a walk and two stolen bases, he was left stranded.

Cuthrell, Goodwin and Nick Hahula had singles while Thomas Berry banged on a double off the wall for the only hits of the night for the Gryphons.

William Prince, Fike's hurler, went the distance giving up an unearned run, struck out six, gave up four hits and walked four but he like Tyler Joyner of Northern found out that against Johnson one run is all he needs. He would like more but he will do with what he can get.

When this season is over, if Rocky Mount, Fike and Northern Nash all finish 1-2-3 in the standings there is not much difference between first and third as Rocky Mount has a 2-0 victory over Northern and a 1-0 victory over Fike. Both victories were on the road and they must face each other once more.

Up the hill from the baseball diamond, the Fike girls softball team beat the Lady Gryphons 4-0

Nash Central played host to Northern and Tyler Joyner and the Knights whipped Central 13-0 in six innings. In two conference games this week, Nash Central has been beaten 13-0 and 15-2.

The Bulldogs travel to Rocky Mount Tuesday night.

I felt like during football season when there was a Sunday night game late in the season when John Madden said he didn't want to have to ride his Madden cruiser from San Diego to Philadelphia and then turn around and go back to Denver that something was up. Today the best color man in the history of the NFL called it quits. At 73, he is the winningiest coach, percentage-wise, in NFL history.

Madden, who has made more money than Jerry Jones ever hopes to make with the Dallas Cowboys with his EA Sports Madden NFL Football, sold 4.5 million copies in 2008 alone. That was enough to pay for the Madden Cruiser, the bus John rode to all his telecasts since he is afraid to fly.

First Place On The Line

Tonight Fike will play host to the Gryphons in baseball which will be a battle for first place. Fike had a very slow start but this week they have scored 27 runs in their last two games.

Overall Fike is now 7-3 but most importantly zero losses in conference play. The Gryphons are 12-1 overall and also support a goose egg in the loss column.

As bad as the schedule has been with so much time off the last two weeks the Gryphons will have their entire pitching staff fresh while The Golden Demons have played on Monday and Tuesday this week.

The Lady Gryphon football team(soccer) took care of Northern Nash for the second time this year in conference play winning 3-nil Monday. Good going!

Those of you who read this column daily know that I am torn over the naming of the new basketball coach at N C State.

Stephanie Glance has been one of those dedicated employees that every company wish they had. Practically she has been the coach over the last five years during Kay Yow's cancer battles.

I like so many other Wolfpackers wants to be 25-5 every year just like Duke and Carolina. I don't see Stephanie being able to do that.

Today at Reynolds Coliseum on Kay Yow Court N C State is expected to names Kellie Harper the new Women's basketball coach.

Harper then Kellie Jolly before marriage lead Tennessee to three straight national Championships while the starting point guard for the Volunteers. Her five years at Western Carolina she has been 97-65. I think what pushed Harper to the top of the list that in the past two seasons Western Carolina has been ranked 25th and this year 15th on the academic honor roll for colleges.

Not only is she young and energetic but she believes in the classroom too. So in five years since she has been a head coach she has won at a school that had never before and has improved every year in the quality education her players were getting.

Lee Fowler has not set the world on fire with any of his hirings since he has been the Athletic Director for the Wolfpack. I think he got this one right.

Hopefully the only problem the Wolfpack will have with Harper is that whenever Pat Summitt retires at Tennessee they don't come after her. The good news there is Summitt is only 54 years old and as many games as she has won already she may pull a Joe Paterno and coach forever.

Harper will only be the third Women's coach in the Wolfpack women's history. Robert Doak coached the first women's team in 1974 and Yow took over in 1975. At 32 years old she has the potential to coach the Wolfpack until 2045 or so.

If that happens that means Fowler finally got one right.