Saturday Disaster

Both Rocky Mount and Northern Nash baseball teams were shut out in their efforts in the opening round of the state baseball playoffs.  Girls softball  Northern advanced to the second round while in soccer both Northern and Rocky Mount were surprise winners in the opening round.

The second round is always a tougher step to take. The second round was in no way a fun day for both of the Nash County teams  alive.   First softball where Northern Nash made the trip to Northern Guilford and surely this sports year has not been pleasant for any sports team from Nash County who has taken on any team with Guilford attached to their name and Saturday was no different.  Northern Guilford shuts out the Lady Knights 9-0.   Ouch!

Oddly enough both Rocky Mount and Northern were on the road in soccer and not that far apart as Rocky Mount visited Sawnsboro and Northern Nash at Jacksonville.  Both Onslow County schools only 19 miles apart  down highway 24 felt no pity for their visitors as Swansboro swamped Rocky Mount 8-0 and Jacksonville 6-0 over Northern. ouch ouch!!.

So the athletic year for all Nash County schools is over.  Only two teams left from the Big  East and both wear Fike on their chest.  Just maybe the best athletic team in the conference is the Fike girls soccer team.  They lead only 2-0 at the half against Northwood both added two more goals in the second half to win 4-0 and will now play Swansboro in round three.

  The third round game will pit number four Fike against number five Swansboro so the game is at Fike.   So far in 23 games Fike has had only 6 goals scored against them all season.  Only once has the Golden Demons been scored on twice in one game that was against Swansboro during a tournament in early season Fike's only loss of the season.  Since the Lady Golden a Demons have now won 20 in a row..

If the ACC baseball tournament continues to return to North Carolina year after year it is a must that North Carolina and NC State be a part of each playing in the three games during the tournament.  Last season they met each other in one of the play in  games. 2013 they met each other in the epic 18 inning game in front of the largest crowd to ever watch  a college baseball game in North Carolina.  No other state can offer when the top rivals of the area collide more than 10,000 will show up if they play at night.

Carolina returns to the play in game but state finished 6th so they will meet Miami, the winner of the 7/10 game and they start with their first game against Notre Dame. Come Saturday night one of the two still needs to be alive in order to keep the ACC interested in returning to Durham past 2016.

Big East Killer- Hitting

I guess the question about the quality of Big East baseball this year is that all those regular season games when nobody could score wasn't because of great pitching but poor hitting.  The opening round of the state playoffs the Big East goes 1-3. 

The Big East scored seven runs in the four first round games including Rocky Mount and Northern being shutout.  Hunt scored four times but gave up double digit runs in 10.  The four teams allowed 18 runs which is not bad that's 4.5 runs allowed per game but only put up 1.75 runs. The ultimate insult is that some of the games the other teams gambled and saved their best pitchers for round two and it worked.  Doesn't seem like the Big East got much respect from their opponents.  Fike in winning did pitch their ace Brandan Winstead 3-2 win over Eastern Wayne.

I guess to answer the question is the Big East did have good pitching this season not exceptional but any time you hold a playoff team to three runs or less like Rocky Mount, Northern and Fike did in the opening round you should win your game.  But only Fike did.  Fike round two tussle will be against West Carteret who was a 3-1 winner over Swansboro tonight at 7pm.

Today is the last day of the regular season of ACC baseball and North Carolina State has put it on the pro pickers of the 64 who will make the NCAA baseball tournament on Memorial Day.  The Pack's victory over Louisville last night guarantees the Pack no worse than sixth in the ACC which keeps them out of play in Tuesday.  The Pack has moved up to 34 in the RPI.

North Carolina who just two weeks ago was 13-10 in the league after losing again last night to Virginia  drops to 13-15 but with Duke beating Wake Carolina is in but they have fallen to a play in
Game.  It is still possible that if Benton Moss can't stop Carolina's bleeding today and if Carolina loses again Tuesday today just might be the last time Moss pitches for Carolina.

He is five wins short of tying for the all time Carolina wins record but unless Carolina finds a forward gear instead of the reverse they are doubtful for the NCAA even though they are 24th in RPI.  Can any team with a losing conference record get into the tournament if they would be on a seven game losing streak especially if they are 10th in the league when maybe only seven get in?
Benton Moss needs to pitch the game of his life today to keep his career at Carolina going plus keep Carolina's NCAA hopes alive.