Legion Season Underway

Post 58 American Legion season has started quicker than those at Rocky Mount High school would have like. Gryphon players would still like to be in the state high school playoffs but a quick exit from the tournament has allowed Post 58 to get some games in this week which had originally been left blank hoping one team from the area would still be in the playoffs.

Last Saturday coach Hank Jones and "Baseball"Britt Johnson held tryout" and last night Post 58 traveled to Durham to play a double header to open the season. Post 58 won the opener 7-2 but lost the night cap 3-2 .

Had an e-mail from Don Fish when I got to work this morning telling me he was up late last night having just gotten back from Asheboro where son Ben Fish and Xavier Macklin are members of the Wilmington Coastal Plains team this summer.

Ben went 2-4 while X man was 0-4 in the season opener. If you recall Xavier started last year at the Wilson Tobs but changed mid season back to Post 58 and finished the Legion season. The Coastal Plains League is a wooden bat league in which players who think they one day might play pro ball can start getting use to hitting wood over the ping of the aluminum.

X-man has as much potential as any player from our area to make it in pro baseball but he has had a hard time adjusting to wooden bats over aluminum. Summer college leagues are where these players try to make the transition to wood but it also gives them a chance to play 70 games against other college players at about the same level they are.

I didn't know there was such a thing but there is a division two in Junior college baseball and Lenoir CC has made it to the world series. That will send three more area players to playoffs this weekend at Faith Christian player Zack and Patrick Johnson and Rocky Mount's Gabe Brown will be traveling.

Turn the TV on and Boston College and Miami are in the12th inning in a 10-10 game. Being as frank as I can be here we are the second day of the ACC and there is only one team that has any pitching at all and that is Virginia. Next week when the Regionals begin Virginia may be the only team to win and make it to the super regionals. If any body else makes it to a super regional that tells me nobody else has pitching either.