Making Up For Lost Time

To say the least the first two years of college baseball did not go  the way Tyler Joyner dreamed of as the Northern Nash grad turned down a minor league contract to head to ECU to pitch for the Pirates.  Billy Godwin put him in the heat of battle early bringing him in  a tight situation for one inning of relief work in which he gave up one run.  Maybe not the greatest of starts but there is plenty of the season still to go.

An NCAA investigation of the Pirates baseball program and a couple of players are kicked off the team and Tyler finds himself on the shelf for the remainder of his freshmen year but still on the team.  There are a lot of situations we all get ourselves into at and early age that we wish we didn't do and Tyler had one that brought on an injury and in order to heal he missed his entire sophomore season.  Two years of college and only one inning pitched for the Pirates. 

Healthy and now in his third year Tyler Joyner made a commitment to walk the straight and narrow and rededicate himself to stay on the field this season and be what Billy Godwin thought he could be three years ago.  Through this weekend Tyler is 3-0 on the season and has pitched 32 innings for the Pirates.  His ERA is less than two at 1.97.  You know this is Tyler's third season and he is eligible of the Baseball draft in June.  If he finishes this season the way he has started  the temptation will be there as a left hander pro baseball teams pay premium dollars for his kind.  Keep it up Tyler!

Down in Chapel Hill Hobbs Johnson found his first year playing for the Tar Heels was pitch to one batter and come back to the bench. When the Heels were ready to go to Omaha for the College World Series Johnson stayed home to attend summer school as there were questions  whether he would be eligible in 2012 unless he hit the books harder, and he did.  Hobbs is still a relief pitcher but this year in seven appearances he has pitched 9.1 innings and has an ERA of 1.93.  He has struck out 11 batters in his nine innings.  Johnson and former Gryphon teammate Benton Moss are both making an impact for the Tar Heels.

Since his six run second inning of his career at Carolina after his ERA ballooned  to over 42 Benton Moss had a streak  of 18 scoreless inning pitching for the Tar Heels.  Today at Maryland Moss absorbed his first college loss but  all he needed was a couple of runs as Moss pitch six innings and gave up one run and took the loss as the Heels lost their first conference game of the year 1-0 to Maryland.

Moss has pitched 25 plus inning and that 42 ERA has come all the way down to 2.13.  He has struck out 28 on the season.he now stands at 2-1 for the Heels.  That one shaky inning Benton has worked his way back to the Sunday starter.

Three Rocky Mount area high school legends making the grade in division one baseball.