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.