Johnson Throws Six Shutout Innings

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The Rocky Mount American 9/10 year old Midget  Little League Allstars beat Wilson 4-3 tonight in Morganton to move up in the winners bracket.  They play again at 4pm Sunday afternoon.

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Rocky Mount's Hobbs Johnson went for his 10th victory of the season pitching for Brevard in the Florida State League tonight and can't pitch any better than tonight but after pitching  six scoreless innings his teammates hadn't scored either and Hobbs fails to win but gets a no Decision.

Brian Goodwin is still lingering around 220 batting average playing the outfield for AAA Syracuse in the International league.  Xavier Macklin is in the top ten in homers in the Frontier league but he like Brian is under 220.  Both need desperately to slow down their strikeout rate.  I told you a week or two about former Rocky Mount player Bill Merrifield who's son Whit continues to tear up AAA pitching for Omaha  for the Royals as he is still hitting 371.  It will not be long now before Whit will be joining the big club.

The story in the Rocky Mount Telegram on Saturday of Post 58 lost to Raleigh  was the last story for Nick Piotrowicz.  Nick has just recently been offer a job with a newspaper in Toledo Ohio which is Nick's native State.  He becomes the second sports reporter lost by the Telegram within a month.

News media whether radio or newspapers in the Rocky Mount area are no longer owned by local people and with corporations looking at the bottom line over what is good for Rocky Mount the Telegram is no longer  the  people's choice for finding out what is happening in Rocky Mount.  WRAL.COM knows more about what is happening here than the home town paper.  Quite frankly the best newspaper in Nash County  is the Nashville Graphic.  Though only a weekly you will see more news and sports in the Graphic in one day than a whole week's worth in the Telegram. I am glad for Nick that he gets to move up to a bigger paper.  During Nick's time in Rocky Mount he has been a pleasure to sit in press boxes with.

We all love to hear someone pat us on the back and tell you what a good job you might be doing.  This week I have been overwhelmed by the out pouring of support given to me by the Raleigh Post 1 fans.  You may know already that Raleigh does not have a home field for their Legion team because the use of Wake and Durham County athletic field are simply too high  for Post 1 to support the team and pay the excessive rent to play games on school fields.

This regular season Raleigh played a double header on  a Saturday in Rocky Mount and not only is the field a very nice field to play on but Raleigh has rented the field as their home field during ever how long their playoff run may last or until the state tournament in Lexington.  Sunday Raleigh will play their first game of a three out of five series with Garner as a home game at Fleming Stadium in Wilson.

They have asked me to be their PA man for all of their remaining home games during the playoffs.  Game three and game five if needed will be in a Rocky Mount.  Should they win this upcoming series with Garner then there is a two out of three series with the Eastern Area one team probably Wayne County so Raleigh would have at least one home game left before the state tournament.

You can see the hardship Raleigh fans have been under as many players are from Durham and they made trips from the triangle five straight nights this week in beating Post 58.  Post one is a very good team and any team that has to endure the hardships this season with no home games deserves a little help from me.