Wednesday, July 2, 2014

Rocky Mount Cary Open Legion Playoffs

The goal is to make it to the state tournament but Rocky Mount and Cary will have the longest road from the which to ride if either makes it through four rounds of playoffs.  Thursday night begins a two out of three series which game one and three if necessary will be played at American Legion Field in Rocky Mount.

Game two will be played at Athens Drive High School Friday.  Cary beat Rocky Mount in Rocky Mount 8-5 and three nights later Post 58 beat Cary at Athens Drive 7-1.  We just might sneak this game in as a Tropical Storm soon to be Hurricane Arthur just might arrive to Far East of us and it might be midnight when it hits then.

We are within a couple of weeks of the major league all star game and just about  this time of year players are promoted to the next level if they are playing at a level that justifies moving up to next level.  Hobbs Johnson I think has the best possibility to being bumped up as any local player.  Johnson playing for Brevard in the Florida State league has a 9-6 record.  The first time this year his ERA has jumped over three at 3.23.

Brian Goodwin is batting 219 in Syracuse and he is in the season far enough now that his batting average will not rise much getting three hits in a game.  Another problem Washington has sent two in recent weeks to the big club bypassing Brian.

Xavier Macklin is hitting 216 in Gate City  Ill.  Xavier is striking out about once in 2.5 at bats which is keeping X man down in the Frontier League.

Interesting  development from a former Rocky Mount player from the Past Bill Merrifield.  Back when the University of South Carolina was winning back to back national titles they were lead by Whit Merrifield Bill's son.  About a month ago Whit was promoted to AAA Omaha the Triple A affiliate of the Kansas City Royals.  The 22 games Merrifield had played at Omaha he is hitting 391.
He keeps that pace up and he'll be in the big leagues by years in.