Northern Swept Bt Eastern Wayne.

Eastern Wayne wins the Eastern 3-A Finals tonight in Red Oak 11 to 1 over the Knights of Northern Nash. In the process they avoided maybe the best left handed pitcher in North Carolina high school or college in TylerJoyner.

It is just the way the schedule dictated the pitching as Joyner having pitch seven innings Wednesday night just to get the Knight to the eastern Finals finished his high school career at first base and got one of the two hits in the game for Northern.

Northern's number two pitcher in Brandon Denton pitched 6 plus innings last night but was not involved in the pitching decision in the 6-5 lost to Eastern Wayne in Goldsboro.

Faced with an elimination game coach Eddie Loesner called on David Whitman to pitch and heading into the fourth inning I don't think any one could have asked for more from Whitman. He was down 2-1 but Northern was in the game until a five run rally in the fourth by the Warriors knocked Whitman out. He was replaced byJeremy Lucas who got six straight batter out and worked until the seventh inning.

The lone Northern run came in the second inning when Brandon Denton reached first on a throwing error advance around to third and a squeeze bunt by Mike Williams which rolled past the pitcher and Williams beat it out for an infield single.

On the night Eastern Wayne collected seven hits but were issued eight free passes five of them intentional walks and two hit batters.

Northern finishes 19-9 on the season .

I heard tonight from Don Johnson that John Haggerty of Northern Nash was behind the plate umpiring today in the LSU-Southern NCAA playoff game that was televised on ESPNU. I saw a few innings of that game but did not realize John was behind the plate.

I saw on the crawler on the bottom of the TV screen that the Denver Broncos have waived J J Arrington. J J had just signed with Denver since the Super bowl. He must have an injury. It's curious getting cut even before summer camp starts.

Congratulations to Brian Goodwin of the Rocky Mount Gryphons being named the Gatorade North Carolina High School Player of the year.

The day of June ninth is a big day for Brian. That is the day of the Major league baseball draft. Whether he plays for Mike fox next year or plays minor league baseball Will be determined by high up in the draft he is taken. There is still a good chance he will be drafted in the first round. I would suspect if he is the money will be enough to start pro ball right away but if he is second round or more he will probably wear the Carolina blue for a while.

It will be interesting to see when Tyler Joyner is drafted.

We haven't Seen Nothing Yet

Education is feeling the crunch of less dollars. Every county is not being asked but basically being told you must make cuts because you are not going to be getting the money that you have from the past.

Being politicians you always want to make cuts where the least people will be hurt. In the case of North Carolina where is the obvious and easiest. The double dippers. We have a system in North Carolina where we don't reward people for long tenured service. When your thirty years are up there is no incentive to stay.

So there is a teacher shortage. How does the state remedy that shortage but rehire teachers who are retired. It would make a lot of sense to me to give a gradual increase in retirement benefits for a teacher to stay thirty eight years instead of thirty. As it is now we not only pay for their retirement but also pay them to come back and teach.

I guess you are wondering what this rant is all about. John Gay the athletic director at Fike has resigned now that he has thirty years in and is leaving Fike. Fike has lost their football coach boys basketball coach and now the AD and girls basketball coach.

All of these cuts will effect sports as much as any area in the school system. Just look this year at Pat Smith at Rocky Mount. This season he had two volunteer coaches helping him. Tom and Hank Jones truly love Gryphon athletics. You know Gryphon football didn't have a full staff last year.

Cuts are coming. There is no denying that.

It would not shock me at all to hear the state say in order to save thirty million state wide that four days a week school days could happen. Think of the gas money saved it they went to a four day a week and one hour a day longer.

All of this pressure to make cuts puts stress on the lives of those who know deep in their heart that they could be one of the cuts. My industry has been under that threat since the fall of last year. It has now hit the education business.

Our economy is showing signs of recovery but in the state budget business it is how much money do we have on July 1st of each year that counts. So what ever cuts happen will last until at least next July.

Don't be surprised More cuts are coming. I can see the day just like travel league ball. If you want to play your parents must get you there, the county will not provide travel. Laugh if you will but I can assure you it has been talked about in some conference room some where.

So John Gay at Fike and Pat Smith are retiring. Don't be surprised at any other name you might hear.