Early Conference Battle

Coleman Pitt Post 58 has had a strange first six games of the  season heading into tonight.  Three of their four losses have come to teams that have a combined 40-6 record.  The fourth loss was a forfeit so standing at 0-4 on the season most of us observers of Post 58 were shocked that two road conference games this week had gone to P58 4-1 at Wilson and 8-7 in Greenville.  2-0 in conference play and tonight Wayne Count Post 11 brings in an 8-2 and 2-1 conference record. Post 58 falls at home 10-2.

 Hank Jones still trying to find who is going to be counted on as the season unfolds starts Johnathan Aparicio on the mound.and from the get go Aparicio had trouble finding the plate and when he did Post 11 had little trouble driving in runs.  P 11 scored twice and looked for more until a nice double play ended a big time rally.  Wayne Co score three more in the second  before P58 scratched home two runs in the bottom of the second.   A walk, a single by David Williams and a two run double by Brock Waynik produced two runs  to find P58  down only 5-2 at the end of two.

Spenser Ramsey came on to pitch the third and held P11 in check until  the sixth inning.  The final eight innings of the game Wayne County would score eight times and all are listed in the books as unearned runs as P 58 gave P11 plenty of help when ever they needed it.  4 errors officially but one batter reached after he had two pop ups dropped and one was in foul territory.


Adam Pate a UNC recruit collects three hits on the night of the seven that Wayne County could muster but when you add four errors ten runs crossed the plate for the winners. Linwood Jones was 2-2 for Coleman Pitt  and David Williams added two more. Jeremy Johnson, Johnathan Aparicio and Brock Waynik had a double and two rbi. 

Greg Johnson pitched seven strong innings for Wayne County who now is 3-1 and 9-2 over all on the season.  Coleman Pitt drops to 2-1 and 2-5 and the mystery remains at how good can this team be this year.  Their four losses have come to teams with a combined 49-8 but I don't care who you play spill the ball all over the place like they did tonight  they will have trouble beating teams 8-49.

Sunday Is No Ordinary State -Carolina Game

All of the sniping, we are better than you will go out the door Sunday afternoon when State- Carolina meet in Omaha Nebraska.  The game will not knock either out but for the loser a trip back to North Carolina could come faster than the other but even winning Sunday guarantees no picnic for the winner.  It is my opinion that LSU is the team to beat of all the teams left in the World Series and guess what they are in the bracket with State and Carolina.

North Carolina remains #1 in the RPI  and right on their heels is LSU in second.  LSU is the only team in the country with less than 10 losses.  N C State is 6th and UCLA the fourth member of this bracket is 13th.  The good news for State and Carolina this sounds like the ACC Tournament all over again. 

State and Carolina have played each other three times this season with Carolina winning 7-1 State winning 7-3 and then the marathon game in Durham with the Tar Heels winning 2-1.  All three of those games never was Carlos Rodon and Kent Immanuel opposite each other on the mound.  You can best better believe they will be on the mound against each other Sunday.  No holding back, let's see what you got when these two square off. 

This game is every thing for  those of us living in North Carolina which ever one you root for but ESPN chose to have the prime time game Sunday LSU and UCLA.  Makes sense since  it is more of a national game since one is from the south and the other west coast.

So far this year Carolina is 57-10 while State is 49-14.  The last 16 times that these two have play each other  and that is over the last four years they are even at 8-8.  Carolina started out 39-2 but down the stretch 18-8. State started 18-10 but down the stretch 31-4.   All of this adds up to two of the best teams in the country playing each other.

The experts called it in the preseason calling Carolina #1 in the country while State was voted #1 in ACC.  All that matters now to either team is right now they are 10 days away from a magic dream coming true.  This Sunday's loser  will have a harder time  meeting that dream than the winner but winning Sunday is no guarantee of future success.

Since both teams are in the same bracket they could meet at least once more later in the week and if one team is in the winners bracket is undefeated  and the other would have to win twice to win out so Sunday may not be the only time they meet next week.This will be the first time ever that State and Carolina have ever met  in the NCAA baseball playoffs or any other NCAA playoff game in any sport.  No one cares who beat who last week, last year or  last century.  The only thing that matters to us all is who wins Sunday.