Rocky Mount Midgets Still Alive

The Rocky Mount Midget 10U team competing in the Tarheel State Championships in Hickory lost in the third round winners bracket game to West Raleigh at noon Saturday17-8. Head coach of 10U Johnny Ramsey told me that this was by far the worse his team has played since they formed as an All Star team in the middle of June.  Into the losers bracket the National League Midget All Stars from Rocky Mount started to try to get to the title game as they played a second game as soon as they had been beaten at 2pm.

   They met up with Hickory the host team of this years tournament and a team  that they had beaten in the opening game of the tournament.  Rocky Mount laid a hurting on the host winning in four innings and by doing so are in the 9/10 year championship game starting at 2pm Sunday.  They will face West Raleigh the team that beat them on Saturday and in order to win the State title they must beat West Raleigh twice. 

If you recall they were in the same situation in the district tournament which was held in Rocky Mount and they were able to win twice.  Should the National League All Stars pull off a double win Sunday that would give Rocky Mount back to back Midget titles as last year the American League All Stars coached by Jeremy Stewart brought home the title.

The 12u Little league team knew before they started Saturday that they had to win twice on Saturday in order to make it to the Finals of the Tarheel Little League State Championships.   Their 12 noon game was a classic and they lost by a 4-3 score.  This gives the National League Little League a 2-2 record in the tournament.

Now that Rocky Mount has a new player trying to make it in the NFL to join Julius Peppers  and the Chicago Bears. Travis Cobb will be wearing #15 for the Bears. If at any time during the preseason and you can watch the Bears I am sure you will see Travis a lot in those first couple of preseason games.  I am sure he will get a chance early to return kickoffs and play wide receiver.  If by the third game and fourth he is still returning kicks I think he will have made the Bears.  Devin Hester who is one of the best returners in the history of the NFL is probably going to be a starting wide receiver and having someone like Travis to take the load off Devin would work in Travis favor.  If you see him make tackles on the kickoff or punt team you can bet he will make the team.

It has been a while since we updated you on Xavier Macklin's progress playing professional baseball for Vermont in the New York Penn League.  His average has dipped to 264 and he has one glaring weakness that he has to get better. X has struck out 31 times in 121 at bats.If you take away the Strikeouts off his batting average he would be hiting 338. He is doing very well when he makes contact.

Midgets Advance in Hickory

The Tar Heel Midget 10U team from Rocky Mount has advanced to the third round in the winners bracket after they won their 10am game Friday Morning 15-6.  This will send them to a noon time game on Saturday where they will play West Raleigh.  The winner of that game will automatically make it to the championship series which will be a 2.00pm Sunday and if they lose the 2.00pm game play again at four for the title.If the Saturday winner wins the 2.00pm game Sunday they will win the Midget State Title.

The news is not quite as good for the Little league 12U team from Rocky Mount as they lost their 10.00am game Friday morning   and played Shelby in a losers bracket game  at 2.00pm Friday and won that game 7-1.  They now must play at noon Saturday against Williamston and if they win that meet the loser of the winner's bracket game which will also be at noon Saturday.  If they can win twice Saturday they would be down to the top two teams and they would have to win twice Sunday to win state title.

Just to show you the difference in a losers bracket compared to being undefeated all the way in an eight team tournament.  The Rocky Mount Midgets if they were to go undefeated in this tournament they can win the title in four games.  The Rocky Mount Little League team will have to play a total of seven games to win the title.  Big advantage to  the winners bracket team as they can save pitching while in the losers bracket you can't save any pitching for the next game cause there just might not be one.

Like to say congratulations to Greg Clifton who was named the new head baseball coach at Faith Christian School this week.  I have head the pleasure to know Greg and his family as their daughter is in the Tar River Childrens Chorus along with Morgan.   I think this is a good hire for Faith as they try to replace Joe Morrow.

 I have scoured the internet and can not find any evidence  where any NFL team has signed Terrell Hudgins, Stephan Virgil or JJ Arrington.  All three are free agents and can be picked up by any team that invites them to camp.  Travis Cobb the 2005 Gryphon graduate has signed a free agent deal with the Chicago Bears and as a 2010 Receiver/ kick specialist for University of Arizona I think Travis has an excellent chance of making the team.  Any time you can do more than one thing like be a receiver or kick returner and you are good at it he just might make the Bears despite having Devin Hester as their kick returner.

I reported yesterday than Greenville was playing for the Williamsport Little League State title Friday night and they beat Kernersville 7-1 to earn a trip to the Southeastern Regional with a 7-1 victory.