Babe Ruth Playoffs

I asked for help to give me a source on how the 15U Nash County Babe Ruth Allstars were doing and one of my faithful readers Mike Pearce pulled a rabbit out of his hat for me and gave me a telephone number of fellow UPS worker Brian Marlowe who had a son playing.

I think we would have been better off if I hadn't found out.  Friday the 15U opened up play in 14 team Eastern State Tournament in Red Springs.  This tournament is broken down into two brackets with seven teams for a double elimination.  Then the two winners meet in a two out of three as North Carolina will send a Western and Eastern champ to the Southeast Regional in Richmond.

Nash County beat  Henderson-Vance 10-0 to open in the winners bracket.  Then Saturday they beat Pitt County 5-1 to be in a very good position to advance in the tournament.  Then I get involved and it goes down hill from there.  Nash County Sunday played Roanoke Rapids in a 1pm game which was delayed because of rain.  Nash County took a 3-0 lead into the seventh inning only to lose 4-3.

This put Nash County having to play Pitt County again  around 6pm  and once again Pitt County gives Nash County their second loss of the day 8-4 to knock the Nash County 15U Allstars out of the tournament.

If any one can help with the Babe Ruth 14U and 13U sure would like to report how they are doing.

Sunday afternoon Garner and Wayne County began their two out of three Area One  American a Legion playoff with Garner winning.  Both have already qualified for the state Legion tournament which starts in Lexington on Thursday.  The only thing they are playing for now is to be called Area one champs.

Review Of Baseball Prospects

 Been noticing Brian Goodwin hasn't batted in the last couple of weeks.  Right now Brian has stalled batted at 219 and when you go to the news wires in baseball you worry that he might have been sent back to 2AA but I guess this is good news in that regard.  Brian has been on the 7 day injured list which is better news than being sent back down.  Don't know the extent of his injury though.

Hobbs Johnson is stuck on 9 wins for Brevard of the Florida State League.  No fault of his own by chance as his ERA has dropped back to 2.80 so he is not giving up runs just not getting and run support from his teammates.

Xavier Macklin batting averaged has dipped to 207 for Gateway City in Illinois.  He is tied for the team lead in home runs with 7.  Today's Telegram has a nice story on X man's year in his comeback after missing almost two years with injuries.

There are two former Rocky Mount high baseball players who have sons trying to move up the ladder in baseball.  Whit Merrifield the son of Bill Merrifield  who now lives in Clemmons has played 35 games at AAA Omaha  for the Kansas City Royals and is hitting 364.  I suspect Whit will be a September call up for KC.

John Wooten who's dad is Sonny Wooten who lives in Wayne County  is now playing for Hagerstown in the Washington National organization.  John who played at ECU and Eastern Wayne has had a tough month as he was hit in the face by a pitch and has been in rehab but despite that since returning to Hagerstown has a season batting average of 303.

I think you need to look at Saturday' News and Observer in the sports section as the Observer did an article on Marvin Jarmon Mr Greenville Rose Rampant.  I think it is one of the best articles ever written about someone I know.  I think you will really enjoy it.

This week I have been on line as much as possible while the Rocky Mount Nationals run in the State tournament in a Greenville.  I took time to read the history of Greenville little league and stumbled upon a very interesting fact.  We all know of Ron Vincent the legendary baseball coach at Rose high who has won almost 850 high school games and six state titles.  Did you know even before he was the baseball coach he lead Greenville to one of their many state titles in little league.