Tar Heel State Champs

The Rocky Mount Tar Heel 11/12 year old little league all stars have won twice today and beat Jacksonville to win the Tar Heel State championship.

Rocky Mount having lost Thursday during their first game battled through four loser bracket games,two on Friday and two on Saturday just to be able to face Jacksonville .

The State Tar Heel little league tournament played in Valdese just outside of Hickory saw two quality teams battle tooth and nail this afternoon before Rocky Mount took two games again today both from Jacksonville.

In the opener Tyler King gave up a first inning home run but King would not allow another run as Linwood Jones drove in two runs in leading Rocky Mount to a 2-1 victory in game one.

Now with one loss just as Rocky Mount, Jacksonville held a 2-0 lead after four innings in the championship game. Rocky Mount scratched across five run to take a 5-2 lead into the sixth inning.

Sam Lilley who came on to pitch with one out in the second inning trailing 2-0 just allowed one run in the sixth as Rocky Mount wins their third Tar Heel Little League State Championship in the past eleven years 5-3.

This group also had to come out of the losers bracket in the district tournament to win that title , so this team is 12-2 in the playoffs this summer.

Veteran coach Sam Toler assisted by Norman Chambliss, George Carter, and Mike Sanders did a great job of making sure this team had pitching depth and they played seven games in four days twice.

It is tournaments like this when the pitchers can only pitch I think it is seven innings for the whole tournament that pitching depth shines. Today they gave up just four runs to win the title.

This is the capper of a very good year of baseball for the boys of summer from Nash County.

The 11/12 year olds are State Champions. The 9/10 year olds finished second in the state.

The Rocky Mount Junior Legion team finished third in the 15/16 year olds and the Senior Legion finished 7th in the state.

We have already made arrangments to have the State Champions Live on the "Stretchlon Sports Show" next Sunday night from 8.00-9.30pm.

Tell all your friends to watch the CHAMPS.