Long Ride Home

The expectations of a second state title in three years came tumbling home in the bottom of the seven inning tonight in Shallotte.

West Brunswick Pitcher Jay Gause fires a one hitter a two run homer in the first inning from Collins Cuthrell after Spencer Bell had walked to give Rocky Mount a 2-0 lead.

Benton Moss pitched six inning but tonight the Trojan batters sprayed hits all over the field. Nine of their ten hits came off Benton Moss who left the game after six in a 2-2 tie.

WB scored in the bottom of the first, bottom of the sixth and the bottom of the ninth with single runs to advance to round three with a 3-2 victory over the Gryphons.

Despite being hit all over the place Moss kept the Gryphons in the game with nine strike outs and a couple of walks. Parker Helms made a gem of a defensive of a play after West Brunswick got three hits in the third, Helms threw a runner trying to score out at home to keep the Gryphons ahead 2-1.

The top of the seventh brought on an incident in which Michael Whitehead hit a foul ball and Benton Moss was tossed out of the game. Kent Cox brought Hobbs Johnson in to the bottom of the seventh where three straight runners reached base on a hit , a walk , then a intentional walk. A ground ball was hit to Matthew Berry at first but by the time the throw got home the winning run had scored.

If you have read any of my blogs over the past week I was concerned about the Gryphon hitting and tonight despite giving up ten hits the pitching kept the Gryphons in the game but the bats never got going against an extremely good Jay Gause.

It sure will be a long ride home tonight for the Baseball team.

This makes twice this season a Gryphon team has ended it's season in the playoffs at West Brunswick. Girls basketball lost by four in the second round during basketball season.

If you watch the news tonight on Channel Five then you saw Nash Central's Jasmine Williams win this week's Extra Effort award from Tom Suitor. Jasmine will be competing this weekend in the state track championships where she just might be the favorite to win the high jump.

I don't know what I would do if I didn't have friends. Gene Taylor has be feeding me an inning by inning recap of the Gryphon game. Gene thanks a million. I owe you one.

Northern's Claytor Qualifies For Nationals

Former Northern Nash golfer Daniel Claytor(2009) begins play today in the Division II National Men's golf championship being held in Indiana. Claytor qualified by finishing second in the South/Southeast Regional Division II tournament two weeks ago when in 54 holes he shot 5 under par. Claytor is a freshman at Barton College.

Can Legion Post 58 Repeat as Area 1 champs and make it back back to the state tournament this year being played in Asheboro? The pieces start to fall in place this weekend at head coach Hank Jones holds try outs for this years squad. The try outs will be held @NCWC at 3.00pm Saturday . Jones will be assisted this year by former Gryphon and now JV Baseball coach at Nash Central "BaseBall" Britt Johnson.

Right now only eleven dates with two double header are on the schedule pending the out come of Gryphon baseball's success in the state high school playoffs. If there was one thing learned last year when the schedule was reduced to less than fifteen regular season games, was that with all our teenagers can do these days playing ball every night is not on their priority list. Reducing the schedule gave them free time most nights until the playoffs hit.

If no games are added the first game will be in Wilson at Fleming Stadium on June 8th. Those who attended the playoffs last year remember the fifth game in the playoffs against Wilson last year Post 58 scored two runs to tie and then added one more in the bottom of the ninth to get past Wilson and make it to the eastern finals against Cary.

Most if not all home games this year will return to Gryphon Stadium.

Baseball team pulled out at 12.15 for the journey to West Brunswick and with clearing skies it looks like baseball tonight for the Gryphons. Boy wouldn't this be a good one for the radio?

First pitch is scheduled for 6.00pm at West Brunswick high school. The weather man is promising clearing skys as the day goes on so it looks like BASEBALL TONIGHT for those who can get there