P58 Wins Conference Opener

Just like Rocky Mount High did during the high school  season Coleman Pitt Post 58 asked David Harrison to keep Post 58 in the game.  He did better than that and shut out Cary Post 67 for five innings.  He allowed three hits and the first two batters of the game got two of them.  He walked two batters struck out four.

Harrison was lifted after five innings and left with a four nothing lead after P58 scored putting a four spot on the board in the fifth inning. Logan Pearce got it started with a single, Forest Bell followed with a single.  Runners on first and second Zack Keeter's sacrifice bunt was thrown away by the third baseman scoring two runs.  Isaiah Thomas singled home Keeter.  Josh Pittman tried to sacrifice but this time the pitcher threw the ball away pushing Thomas to third. Colby Carter sac fly to center produced the fourth run.

Luke Mills took to the hill in the sixth and and two hits and a hit batter loaded the bases.  Nothing doing as Mills got out of the jam without a run scoring. Mills pitch three scoreless inning until giving up the shutout in the ninth and two runs.

A generous defense by Cary gave Post 58 a run after two errors the second a wild throw over third  plated run number five.  The lead zoomed to 8-0 in the eighth on RBI singles by Tyler Sherrod  and two RBI by Logan Pearce.  A third RBI was thrown out at the plate.

Post 58 had 12 singles.  Two from Colby Carter and RBI, Tyler Sherrod two and RBI.  Logan Pearce two hits and two RBI.  Others reaching base by hit were Josh Pittman, Noah Schrock,Forest Bell, Zack Keeter, John Michael Kelly and Isaiah Thomas and RBI.

Mills pitch four innings giving up two runs on five hits, walked two and had two K's.  Post 58 is 1-0 in Area one west and now 2-3 on the young season.  They don't have another scheduled game until Wednesday night June 8th at Wilson.  Don't be shocked to hear of a game between now and then but as of right now nothing is official.

Six Teams From Carolina In No Tar Heels

Six teams for the state of North Carolina have made the NCAA Regional baseball championships.  Ten teams from the ACC are in but the first team left out this year's tournament is the University of North Carolina.  They are the highest ranked team 19th RPI to not make the field.  Western Carolina, UNC Wilmington, Wake Forest, Duke, ECU and NC State are all in.

The Wolfpack is the only team from the State to be hosting a regional as they will play Navy at 7pm Friday night.  St  Mary's making their first appearance will play Coastal Carolina in the opening game at 2pm.  Navy is fifth in the nation in ERA but has not played a single game all year against a top 100 team. The Wolfpack and Coastal played  a game against each other the first weekend of the season in Myrtle Beach with the Wolfpack winning 13-10.

ECU will be heading to Charlottesville where their first game will be against Bryant.  Bryant's RPI is 26 while after losing two straight in their conference tournament the Pirates have fallen to 36.

There will be a match up of in state schools on Friday.  UNC Wilmington is the #2 seed in the South Carolina regional and they will meet the Duke Blue Devils. This is the first invite to the NCAA baseball tournament for the Devils since 1961.

Wake Forest returns to the tournament for the first time since 2007.  The only team from North Carolina ever to win the baseball national championship will be heading to Texas A&M where they will be a three seed and play Minnesota in their first game.

The Final North Carolina team in is the Catamounts of Western Carolina.  They are not hosting but not far to get to their regional as they will play host Clemson on Friday.  WCU came out of the losers bracket and played six games to win the Southern Conference title.  They are 103 in the RPI and overall record is 30-29 and during the season 0-8 against top 50 teams.

UNC Lacrosse won both the Men's and women's national championships in Lax.  The men's game was a great one.

The Coleman Pitt Post 58 game at Pitt County Post 39 was rained out and  cancelled.  No make up date has been scheduled and now that both teams are hitting into their conference games may not have a chance to make this one up.  Post 58 will be home Tuesday night as they start conference action.  First pitch is scheduled for 7pm at Legion Field against Cary.

Lander University with the three Players and coaches from Rocky Mount play their winners bracket game against Nova Southeastern Tuesday night at Five o'clock at the USA baseball facility in Cary.

Weather Man's Forecast Was Right

The Division two World Series crammed four games into one day so just in case it rained Sunday no team would lose a starting pitcher who might pitch  an inning or two and then sit during a rain delay and not return to the game.

Any time you might have to play four or five games in a week pitching becomes the most valuable commodity any team has  and no one wants to lose a pitcher in a game that might get delayed to the next day.  As many showers and at times heavy rain we had Sunday the NCAA made the right call making me watch baseball until after one am on Sunday?  Weather permitting the losers bracket double header is today and Lander and all the other winners play Tuesday.

Coleman Pitt Post 58 American Legion team 1-3 travels to play Pitt County Post 39 tonight at Pitt Community College in Winterville.  Tuesday they have a home game with Cary which is the first conference game of the season.  Wednesday they travel to Wilson to play Post 13 at Fleming  for the only meeting during the regular season.  The only other meeting now would be if they meet in the playoffs.

Will they host or not and the answer is The NC State Wolfpack will be the only team from North Carolina hosting an NCAA Division 1 Regional starting this weekend.  The Pack will join five other ACC teams hosting the 16 regional sites.  Clemson 6th in the RPI, Miami 3rd, Louisville 2nd, Florida State 13th, Virginia 17th and NC Start 10th all all host three other teams and they will be announced at Noon Monday.

Up in the air  will they get in at all are ECU, North Carolina, Duke and Wake Forest.  If it happens that Carolina, Duke and Wake join State some where in the tournament it will be the first time ever all four of the so called Big Four made the NCAA tournament the same year.

Today is Memorial Day  where we honor our fallen heroes who fell defending this country.  We are a free people who can go to ball games whether it is a professional game, a college game and all the different level in college to American Legion.   No one will stop us and ask us why we were where we are and what we are doing unless of course we are violating a law and need to be stopped.

Thank a veteran today and every day for the freedoms they have helped us keep.  Those that you thank came back but there are so many laying in a grave in many foreign country's who didn't come back.  This is their day. Remember them for what they gave us all.

Saturday Baseball On Sunday

I just had a typical Saturday.  Left home around 9am to visit my step mother in the big Northampton County town of Lasker.  On to Ahoskie where we visited one of my wife Pat's  sisters and the plan A was to go to the American Legion Doubleheader before heading home.  Just might be too hot to sit in the sun at 4 pm so at 3:15 we buzz by the field on the way home.

By the way Coleman  Pitt lost  game one of the doubleheader 5-3 after Josh Daniels pitched the first five innings and left with a 3-3 tie.  Trey Wells gave up a two run homer in the bottom of the sixth for Post 58 third straight loss of the season.

The night cap was all Post 58 as they finally score some runs and beat Post 102 9-2.  Cameron Taylor made a nice comeback after his one and one third inning opening night seven run outing.  He gets the win with close out help from Zack Keeter.

Post 58 travels to Winterville Monday night and plays Pitt County Post 39 at Pitt CC.  Next home action is Tuesday night against Cary.

Got home just in time to spend 30 minutes at home and head to Cary to see Lander play in the fourth game of the day in the Division II College World Series.  Had it planned out just right.  Game time was schedule for 8:30 as four games were squeezed in Saturday because of the pending rain coming Sunday.  Picked up my son Brooks and we arrived around eight just enough time to hob nob with the Johnson family there watching son Britt coach third for Lander.  Also the Leggetts rooting  for son Jim as pitching coach for the Bearcats.

Didn't get a chance to speak to the Berry family before the game but the best laid plans don't always workout.  Game three went 12 innings and the first pitch in the Lander game was not until 10:05pm.  Thomas Berry's first at bat he hit a rope that the right fielder almost didn't even move.  Second chance was a foul pop up which almost hit one of the in bound jets heading in to RDU.  Third time up was a K.

Lander got a home run in the first but a miss played ball in the outfield tied the game at one.  Another defensive lapse gave Central Missouri the lead of 2-1 in the top of the eighth.  Two outs and Thomas Berry at the plate he coaxed a walk.  Those of you who remember Thomas playing at Rocky Mount might remember he is not fleet a foot so he was replaced by a speedster in the bottom of the eighth.  No need for a speedster as Lander gets a two run homer to take a 3-2 lead into the ninth and they bring on their stopper from the bullpen.




Those of you who have watched the ACC baseball tournament this week especially the NC State games know what it feels like to be on top of the mountain one minute and knocked down the next.  Lander gives up the tying run and somehow or other were lucky enough not to give up the lead.  Heading to the bottom of the ninth tied 3-3.  Lander scores one run to win on a walk off single and advance to the winners bracket game Tuesday Night at 8:00pm.  The game ended at 1:14am this morning.  Didn't stay long to bask in the glory of victory with the Johnson's,Berry's and Leggetts.  Here it is 3:26 as I write this blog and church starts for me at 8am.

Many of you know the ACC championship game has moved to 10 am this morning.  Nash  County's John Haggerty will be the umpire behind the plate.

Improved But No Cigar

Tonight at Legion Field Coleman Pitt Post 58 played a second game this week at home against Pitt County Post 39.  Wednesday night PC had eight runs by the end  of the second.  Tonight it took them nine to score six but that was plenty as Pitt County wins for the second time this week 6-3 over Post 58.

Much improved was CP 58 Pitching  as Noah Schrock got the start and after three innings held P39 scoreless through three.  Colby Carter started P58's 3rd with a two out single. A walk and a Tyler Barrett single and a wild over throw at third produced the first RBI for any Post 58 player plus the throw scored Logan Pearce who had walked.  Barrett scored on a wild pitch to make it 3-0.

It looked as Schrock was in big trouble in the fourth as the first batter reached on an error, a hit, a hit batter loaded the bases.  Schrock got a much needed strike out and then the old 1-2-3 double play.  A high bouncer was looking like it was going to get past Schrock, if it did it probably was going to be an infield hit but Schrock manages to stop the Ball throw to catcher Dawson Sikes and threw to Tyler Sherrod at first for a double play.

The fifth there would be no getting off the hook as Pitt County start with a hit. One out and a hit batter and error at second a base on ball and a hit and double and Pitt County leads 4-3.  Tyler Barrett relieved and gave up two runs through the eighth inning.  Josh Daniels pitched the ninth.

Coleman Pitt pitching held PC to five hits walked 6 and CP58 committed three errors.  Rocky Mount got four hits  Wednesday  could find only five tonight. Three from Colby Carter, and one each Josh and Tyler Barrett who got the only RBI.  Batters five through nine were 0-15.

Weather permitting Coleman Pitt travels to Ahoskie Saturday for a double header playing two seven inning games.  This Tropical storm may mess up a lot of baseball this weekend including the DII  World Series in Cary. Lander University with the three former Rocky Mount players and coaches on board will play at 8:30 Saturday night as instead of playing two games on Saturday and two on Sunday.  Trying to beat the rain but late Saturday forecast doesn't look good either.

The Set Up Is Wrong

It is only Thursday of the ACC Baseball Tournament and every team is well within their three games heading to decide who plays Sunday for the ACC Baseball championship.  N C State played Miami the top seeded team in the entire ACC tournament but before they took the field to play their game Florida State had already put away Georgia Tech which gives them two wins and even if State was to beat Miami and Georgia Tech they could only obtain two wins and since Florida State beat them already they are out of the championship game having played but once.

I thought the idea of a tournament was that the further you got to the end the  closer you got to keep playing.  There has been several instances where one team that made it to the finals played their last bracket game on Friday had Saturday off.  Just 2013 the classic State-Carolina 18 inning Saturday night into Sunday morning game that got over at 1:30 in the morning.  Carolina had to be back for championship game at 1:pm which they won over Virginia Tech.

There is a push right now to let 12 teams play with 2 groups of six which use to be the way the NCAA tournament use to be until the Super regional method was put in place.  Another concept is have four pods of three teams and the winner of each pod plays in the semi finals of Saturday and the winners play Sunday.   That sure would make semi final Saturday much like  semi final Saturday at the ACC basketball tournament. 

If they keep what they have now why not let everyone play their first game and who ever loses the first game play the other loser in your bracket next.  The way they have it set up now you know when you play each day.  If this was a true tournament you fall into the so called loser bracket and play at what ever time that game is called for.  There is no good answer to round robin play.  It is almost like three regular season games in one weekend  and somebody will play in the championship.

I think one thing missing from the baseball tournament the way it is set up now is the build up.  The only buildup the ACC Baseball tournament has is when State and Carolina play each other and that ain't happening this year.  I don't care if the tournament was in Boston if State and Carolina played each other at some point that day there would be the biggest crowd of the tournament.

The simple fact to this point is the baseball for the most part in thrown into the category of a non-revenue sport.  When the tournament is played in North Carolina both N C State Fans  and Carolina fans will support their teams and go watch them play.  They don't go see Miami play Boston College because both Miami and Boston college fans aren't there either to see their team play.  So if you want the biggest crowds you play at sites where the most people will go.

The ACC basketball tournament did the same thing.  They started in Reynolds because it was the biggest arena around and was full every game played.  Still these days when the tournament moves around nobody goes to an afternoon game in the quarterfinals when BC plays Syracuse but let Carolina or Duke play in a quarterfinal Friday afternoon game in Washington DC and the place is packed.

We all as fans especially if you love baseball want to see competitive games with each win building up that you might play Sunday.  Lose early and play two meaningless games and who wants to go to that. Regardless of what method is used the primary goal should be that as long as you win you keep playing. 

Off And Crawling

Coleman Pitt Post 58 opened up the 2016 Summer baseball season tonight at Legion Field.  Before we dive into the game let's look about some facts before we start.  Having taken last year off CP 58 has only one returning player from the 2014 team Forest Bell.  Since there was no team last year they have no college freshman eligible  to play so 19 of the 20 players on the roster are stepping up against most compettion these guys have yet to face.

Coach Hank Jones is hoping that pitching is the best part of this team but the first inning Pitt County sent the first seven batters to the plate and all seven reached base three seeing eye singles, two walks and two hit batters. Before the inning ended Post 39 led 5-0.  Nerves played a big factor for Cameron Taylor and Hank Jones sent him back out in the Second to get his feet on the ground.  Three hits and a walk and Post 58 finds themselves down 8-0 before they had all had at least one bat.

Trevor Mills finished the second and got through the third.  Complicated matters at this point Post 58 decided to wait until two outs in the third to get their first hit off Post 39 starter Charlie King as David Harrison laced a single to right.  It wasn't that King was over powering just nothing was happening in the batters box for Coleman Pitt. King went the first four innings giving up two as the second hit was from Tarboro's Trey Wells. King walked four and hit a batter and all seven were left on base.

Trevor Mills pitched with one out in the second until two outs in the fifth giving up a run.  Trey Wells gave up a run in an inning 1/3 and looked like this would be a mercy rule game.  The lone run for Post 58 scratched across in the fourth with a bases loaded walk to Colby Carter who gets the only CP58 RBI of the night.

Noah Schrock pitched two scoreless inning and Tyler Barrett finish a scoreless ninth.  Post 58 got two hits after the fourth as Wells got a second hit and Josh Pittman had the other. Eight Post 58 batters walked and only one scored. Post 39 pounded out 15 hits another ten reach by walk or clonk.  The good news was after all that the Final is 10-1. Could have been worse

All 18 players who suited up got at least two at bats each.  There was nothing wrong with the defense but there is one thing for sure.  Friday night look for every player to get in the game and a couple of swings as no one had nailed down full time playing position on this team.

Yet, as bad as it seemed do away and start over the first ten batters for Pitt County and we had a  2-1 finish the last seven innings.

Post 58 returns  to action Friday night at Legion Field as Post 58 will try to start all over against Post 39.

The Gryphon World and Baseball

Going into Tuesday night's action Brian Goodwin has settle in nicely in his return to AAA baseball.  His 41 games in Syracuse he is hitting 313 which is second on the team 317 to  Trea Turner.  This past week he hit his first career home run with the bases loaded which led to a big come back win for the Chiefs. His 46 hits have led to 24rbi tops on the Chiefs.  Nine doubles and a triple are setting Brian up for his chance with the Washington Nationals.  Probably will take an injury for that all important call.

Hobbs Johnson in his second season in Buloxi Mississippi but his first full season as a short reliever.  The last time our check of Hobbs' progress his ERA was almost eight runs per game but since has had several short outings without allowing a run.  His record is 1-0 ERA has dropped to 5.60 pitching 17.2 innings in 12 appearances.  He has struck out 15.

Benton Moss has a 2-4 record in nine appearances and eight starts.  He Has pitched 42.2 innings.   He has struck out 46 batters and walked 14.  Playing in the Florida State League for Port Charlotte about 100 miles south of Tampa.  Not a bad place to spend the summer.

Collins Cuthrell is nine games into playing for Florence Kentucky in the Cincinnati  area  is batting 213 on 7 hits in 33 at bats.  He still doesn't have enough at bats yet to worry about hit batting average as a three hit night can raise his average 50 points.

Former Gryphon Sonny Wooten who now lives in Wayne County and son John Wooten who played at ECU and for the past few seasons has been in the Nationals organization has called it quits in professional baseball.

One gives up and another's dream comes true.  We told you last week about Whit Merrifield getting  called up to the Kansas City Royals.  Merrifield has now been to the plate 13 times with four hits including a double which computes to 308.  Those kind of numbers keep you in the Big Leagues.

I am hearing that two former Gryphons are going to player summer college league baseball this summer.  Blake Helms Barton and Cody Smith Chowan at this point I don't know who they are playing for.  Can anybody help me?

The brackets have been announced and for all those fans from the area planning on making a trip to Cary and the Division II College World Series this weekend Lander University's first game is Sunday Night at 7pm.  I am expecting a big Nash County turnout just like two years ago to watch Thomas Berry play his final week of college baseball.  There will be many family and friends in attendance for all three Gryphons including "Baseball" Brett Johnson coaching third and Jim Leggett keeping he pitchers on their toes.

Coleman Pitt Post 58 will try to open their season tonight at 7pm at Legion Field on Howell street.  They will be playing Pitt County Post 39 tonight and again at home Friday night.

Three Gryphons Returning To College World Series

Lander University is heading back to Cary and the Division II College World Series for the second time in three years.  They are led by senior DH hitter Thomas Berry who just this weekend became  the all time Lander home run hitter when he rapped number 29 over the Columbus State University fence.

Lander won all four games they played in the Southeast Regional including the noon victory Monday over USC-Aiken 5-3.  Former Gryphon "Baseball" Brett Johnson who is now in his sixth year as third base coach.  Serving his second year as pitching coach is Jim Leggett who at the time he graduated from Rocky Mount was the all time winningest pitcher in Gryphon history.  He has since been over taken by Benton Moss the winningest pitcher.

Lander finishes the regionals with a 42-14 record and  has sweet revenge in beating USC-Aiken twice during the regional after USC-A had swept the Bearcats during their three game series during the regular season and once in the Peach Belt Conference Tournament last week.  They are ranked eleventh in the latest DII polls.

The Division II College World Series starts Saturday at the USA Baseball Training Facility in Cary.  There will be two games Saturday and Sunday giving all eight regional champions one game during the weekend before the Monday second  round of the double elimination tournament begins.  The teams and times have yet to be announced as other teams and regions are not over as of yet.

I had the pleasure to go to Landers first game in Cary in 2014 and sat near all the Johnson and Berry family members and wrote on this blog how wonderful it was to be with families as they watched their children partisipate for many their biggest moment in life.  I was not alone as approximate 200 people from the Rocky Mount area were there to witness  the game.  Now this year the Leggett family will be there.

The opening night of American Legion baseball got washed out and has been pushed back to Wednesday.  The Wednesday game will be against Kinston  and Friday night Pitt County Post 39 will be at Legion Field.

Legion Returns Tonight

Legion Rained out Tonight!!!!!!!

Those of you that read this Blog on a daily basis may remember that end of the Legion season in 2014 that I announced that I was retiring from the pressbox after nine years as the PA for Coleman Pitt Post 58.  How was I to know that my retirement would devastate Post 58.  Knowing that I would not be there to announce their names there wasn't enough interest last season to field a team.  So in the best interest of Legion Baseball I will be return to the pressbox again this season.

Coleman Pitt Post 58 at this point has a 16 game schedule with seven home dates and eight road games and one of those road games will be a doubleheader.  Tonight Kinston  Post 43 will be at American Legion Field on Howell street.  Their second home game of the season will be Friday night May 27th when they host Pitt County Post 39.

Wednesday night the first road game will be against Pitt County Post 39 and the game will be at Pitt CC.  Saturday will be the lone double header as Post 102 in Ahoskie will host Post 58.  Memorial Day will be the trip back to Greenville Post 39.  Conference play starts on Tuesday May 31st as Cary Post 67 comes to Rocky Mount. 

This season Post 58 is in the division with Cary,Apex,Durham,Clayton,and Garner.  Wednesday June the eighth will be the only meeting of the year between Rocky Mount and Wilson as Post 13 is in the Other division and the game will be in Wilson. June 15th and 17th Coleman Pitt will host Apex Post 124 and Durham Post 7.

Clayton will make a trip to Rocky Mount on June 20th.  Post 58 will finish the season with five of there last six games on the road.   June 24th at Apex, June 25th at Clayton.  Monday the 27th at Durham.  The final regular season at  home game happens on June 28th with  a visit from Garner.  Post 58 ends the regular season June 30th at Garner and July 1st at Cary.

Hank Jones return as the head coach for his fifth season at the helm.  He will be assisted by the Ramsey brothers Cameron and Spencer Ramsey, Nick Hahula and David Williams.  Twenty players are as of right now on the team but only 18 will be eligible for the playoffs.

The 2016 Coleman Pitt Post 58 American Legion team is as follows:
Rocky Mount High-Zack Keeter,Forest Bell,Will Hedgepeth, David Harrison,Josh Pittman and Logan Pearce.
Nash Central-John Michael Kelly,Cameron Taylor,Colby Carter,Noah Schrock and Tyler Sherrod.
Northern Nash-Tyler Barrett, Chad Nelms, and Josh Daniels.
Southern Nash-Dawson Sikes and Trevor Mills
Rocky Mount Academy-Reid Johnson and Isaiah Thomas
Faith Christian- Luke Mills
Tarboro-Trey Wells
The strong point of this team could be pitching which is in recent history of Post 58 is opposite as hitting has been the hallmark.

Lander Univerity won the winners bracket game Sunday and now sits and waits for the loser bracket winner and if they are the winner will return to the to the Division II College World Series in Cary.  Former Gryphon Thomas Berry has play a major roll in game one hitting his 29th career college home run which is the top spot on the Lander Home run list.  Sunday in the winners bracket game Berry drove in two of the three runs in the game.

Two former Gryphons played in another regional in the DII playoffs as Chowan lost their first two games to get eliminated.  Cody Smith started game one in a 12-6 lost to Westchester. Will Edwards pitched in the late innings of game one.

Our Actions Speak

A couple of weeks have passed since this incident happened but to me it shows how our country has fallen that we no longer feel disrespecting others is shameful but we can do anything we want to do and can justify our actions by not telling the truth.

Dwayne Wades disrespect for the Canadian National Anthem is another spear into the heart of how our society has fallen.  I believe Canadians have every right to be in an uproar.  His excuse is pretty lame that the Anthem started while the clock was still counting down is unbelievable how people will lie to get out of trouble.  I guess he must be deaf and did not hear the public address announcer announce for everyone to arise for the playing of both the Canadian and American Anthems.

I hate it while the National Anthem is playing people continue to walk to their seats or talk to each other.  We in this country have no idea of what other people before us went through to make sure we are still able to go to public events without having to pass government checkpoints even to get there.  Yes we have to pass a metal detector to get into the building but that is not done without reason because there are so many people jealous of what we have in this country and will do almost anything
to hurt us. 

I wish the NBA had  of fined him like $250 thousand just if for no other reason than to make a statement that they will not tolerate  that type disrespect.  I am sure if a foreign players did the same while our anthem was playing we would want him deported.

You know regardless of how great a player is there are those instances  that after the years go by instead of how good a player they are they are remember for something that didn't have to do with their playing ability.  A former Duke linebacker Mike Curtis was playing for the Baltimore Colts back in the 1960's and a fan ran onto the field  and as that fan ran near Curtis old number 32 clothes lined  that person.  Most players of the NFL had wished that it had been them that took out that person because fans have no right or reason to be on a playing field.

Then there is the story of Scotty Pippen who is in the Hall Of Fame today because of the coat tails of Michael Jordan.  During the playoffs in one of the two years that Jordan decided to play baseball the Bulls were in a close game near the end and after the final play was not designed for Pippen to shoot he refused to reenter the game.  The shot was made by the player Toni Kukoc that the play called for but Pippen not being in the game not being a decoy made the play harder than it might have been if Pippen had of been a real leader that he was suppose to be.

Players like Grayson Allen regardless of how good of a player he may be will always be remember as the Duke player that tripped other players or even the best example of all Christian Laettner who might be the best college basketball player ever during the TV era will always be remembered for the stomp on the Kentucky player in that Regional final game in 1992.

Joe DiMaggio said it best when asked why he always stayed late and signed every autograph before he would leave a game after it was over.  This may be the only time in these young people's lifetime of ever being near me and I would not want them to remember me for turning them down on an autograph.

We all live and do things we wish we had not done and would love to change what we did.  There is no going back but in Dwayne Wade's case and many others if he had of said right off the bat I am sorry but he didn't.  There is not a person in Canada that will ever think of Dwayne Wade as a great basketball player but only as an ugly American.  He has stained us all.

Southern Nash-Rocky Mount-Nash Central Win State Titles

The 3A state track and field championships were held today at North Carolina A&T and three events were won by three Nash County boys Tracksters.  Nash Central girls claimed a relay title. Two hail from Southern Nash and one from Rocky Mount.  The three state champions are Jaquay Mitchell Sr Southern Nash Triple Jump.  He won with a jump of 47 feet and nine inches. The Firebirds also scored big with Nadir Thompson sophomore who won the 200 meter dash.

Rocky Mount State champions is Sherrod Green jr who won the shot put with a toss  of 55 feet and eleven inches.  A rather nice 24 hours for Greene  after having won Thursday night the title of best boys athlete at the Gryphon's sports banquet.  The 4 by 400 relay for the Nash Central girls took top honors as state champs.  Their team consisted of T'Keyah Macklin, Carisha Leonard, Kiera Ausby and Myka Hedgepeth.

Southern Nash boys tied for seventh in the overall standings collecting 26 point with ten points each coming from their state Champions.  Rocky Mount finished 18th getting ten from Greene's state championship effort.  Nash Central boys were 39th with four points and Northern Nash garnered two points.

The girls only had two teams to score points from the area as Nash Central scored twenty seven to finish eighth.  Rocky Mount scored six points which gave them a 30th finish.

Listed below is every Nash County athlete that finished in the top eight which was good enough to score at least one point.

Boys High Jump:  JaClayton Freeman Rocky Mount 5th
Boys Triple Jump: Jaquay Mitchell Southern Nash State champion
Boys shot put : Sherrod Greene Rocky Mount State Champion
Boys 120 meter hurdles:  D'Jahe Ruffin Nash Centrsl 5th-Jonathan Romero Rocky Mount 8th
Girls 100 yard dash:  Laneeja Sheppard Rocky Mount 5th
Girls 4x200 relay:  Nash Central 3rd Michaela Nelms, Teona Hill, Kiera Ausby and T'Keyah Macklin
Boys 4x200 relay:  Southern Nash  7th. Daeone Wilkins, Zonovan Knight, Chris Lucus and Nadir Thompson.
Boys 1600 meter run:  Northern Nash 7th Coleman Cherry
Girls 4x400 Relay:  Nash Central 3rd Keira Ausby, Michaela Nelms. Teona  Hill and T'Keyah Macklin
Girls 400 yard dash:  Nash Central 4th Michaela Nelms, Rocky Mount 7th Brittany Beckford
Boys 200 meter dash:  Southern Nash Nadir Thompson State Champion
Girls 4x400 relay:  Nash Central T'Keyah Mavklin, Carisha Leonard, Kiera Ausby and Myka
Hedgepeth   State Champions.

Every so often I have mentioned that former Rocky Mount Gryphon Baseball players Bill Merrifield's son Whit who played on two national champion baseball teams at South Carolina was on the verge of making the majors.  It happened Tuesday night as a player for the Kansas City Royals was sent to the minors and Whit Merrifield who this season has played second base in AAA Omaha got the call to report to KC

Wednesday KC played a doubleheader and Whitfield got a start in the second game of the DH.  He got his first major league hit going 1-3.  He started in left field and his ability to play all outfield positions an infield makes him a valuable utility player. During the KC broadcast Wednesdsy night with both his parents in attendance the tv crew went in the stands to talk to Bill and Kissie.  Those of you who know the Merrifields can go on the website of the KC Royals and see that interview on line.

Rings

Tonight Rocky Mount High School had it's end of the year sports awards where every athlete who played any sport was recognized for their efforts this past school year. Of course the highlite of the evening was the 2015 3A football State Champions received their state championship rings.   Each player was handed a ring box and could not open to see his ring until all the football awards were handed out.

(My ring and I featuring Bobby English who has been a member of the chain crew since the mid 1970's)  

The top prizes of the year went to the male and female scholar athletes of the year.  Both are top three in grade point average among the seniors well over 5.0.  Both excelled on the playing field in more than one sport never ignoring their class work.  The awards went to Forest Bell and Schuyler Moss.

The Triple Crown award given by the Kappa Alpa Psi Fraternity for Athletic, academics and character went to Tyrell Forbes and Schuyler Moss

The Juan Chesson Award was presented to Alicia Pickett.

The top athletes of the year were female Laneeja Shepard and Sherrod Greene.

Even the United States Army was on hand to congratulate Sherrod Greene for being nominated as one of the 400 candidates eligible to play in the US Army All American Football game in January.

Athletic Director Mike Gainey announced that the Gryphons won the Wells Fargo Cup as the best all round athletic program in the Big East in the school year 2015-16.

Rocky Mount High was presented the 2016 Sportsmanship Award presented by the North Carolina Athletic Directors Association and the North Carolina Coaches Association.

During each sports presentation Mike Gainey gave out plaques presented by the Big East Conference
Track and Field.  Big East Runner of the year. Girls Laneeja Shepard  boys Jonathan Romero.

David Harrison Big East Baseball pitcher of the year.

Tyler Brice Big East Tennis player of the year.

Boys Big East Swimmer of the year Wyatt Phillips

Football Big East Offensive Player of the Year Nick Bynum

football Big East Defensive Player of the Year Sherrod Greene

Around 500 ate dinner and a couple hundred others watched the show as this officially ends the 2015-2016 sports year even though several athletes will be running in the state championships of track and field starting Friday in Greensboro.

Big East Baseball All Conference

The Big East has announced the all conference baseball  team  and the three teams tied at the top pull in five players each.  Jacob Williamson of Hunt was voted the Player of the year and Rocky Mount pitcher David Harrison was named as the top pitcher.

Rocky Mount's five selection would seem to shine a light on a bright future for next year as four of the five on the team are juniors.  David Harrison, Logan Pearce, Jake Philbeck and Josh Pittman.  The lone senior is Forest Bell who now can say he has two all conference selections this school year joining football.

Northern Nash has three players returning next season in Dwight Daniels, Josh Daniels and sophomore Silas Gonzalez.  Seniors Tyler Barrett and Chad Nelms make the Northern Nash five.

Besides the player of the year in Jacob Williamson sr Hunt has Ty Galloway Jr, Greg Lamm Sr., Joel Taylor Sr and Bryson Worrell jr.

Nash Central tying for 4th gets three selections in John Michael Kelly Sr, Noah Shrock Sr, and Cameron Taylor Jr.

Fike gets three picks in D J Daniels who just might get drafted in the June baseball draft.  Jalynn Melton Soph and Brandon Winstead Sr.

Southern Nash's lone pick  is Trevor Mills Soph.

The honorable mentions were Zack Keeter  Rocky Mount, Whit Casper Northern Nash, Conner Griffin Hunt, Zack Patterson Nash Central, Terry Jackson Fike and Ryan Marlowe Southern Nash.

Normally the top team coach is named coach of the year and this year there are three tied at the top so all three coaches were named coaches of the year.  Pat Smith Rocky Mount, Bard Collins Northern Nash and Jon Smith Hunt.

The baseball season ended tonight for Faith Christian.  Knotted 3-3 the game went into the eighth inning but Northside Christian Academy from Charlotte exploded for seven runs and advance 10-3 over Faith.

Softball season has ended for Northern Nash at Topsoil with a 10-1.

Championships Bring On The Spoils

Thirteen football players from across from North Carolina have been nominated to play in the end of the season national US Army Allstar football game. Nash County has a player nominated and the player is Sherrod Greene Linebacker from Rocky Mount High.  400 players from across the country have been put on the list and as the season goes forward and 90 players will make up the two 45 man rosters that will play in the game.

Looking back at last football season Greene was the starting fullback and starting middle linebacker the first few games last season.  It became apparent early on then Rocky Mount was loaded at running backs but linebacker was a different problem.  Coach Jason Battle  made the move putting Nick Bynum at fullback saving Greene to concentrate solely  on defense.  That move gave Greene freshness the entire game instead of going both ways the whole game.

Bynum rushed for over 1600 yards and Greene was on the way to being the linebacker that made the Gryphon defense become championship quality.  Greene had 106 solo tackles, 48 assisted tackles.  Averaged 9.6 tackles per game.  Had five sacks, caused two fumbles, recovered four, and returned two of those fumbles for touchdowns.  Even as a backup fullback averaged 5.7 yards per carry and scored five touchdowns.

Two notable tackles during the Edenton game Greene Kicked off to about the five yard line.  The returner was sailing along before Greene was the first man down the field and met the runner at the 19 yard line the ball flew up in the air when it was picked off and returned for a Gryphon touchdown.

The most important tackle all season occurred in overtime of the state championship game when South Point faced with third an goal from the eight yard line the South Point quarterback broke around the end and had a free lane to the goal line until number 44 Sherrod Greene met him at the five yard line and that was as far as he went.  The next play was the failed field goal by South Point  which set up Chase Miller's the state championship winning field goal on the Gryphons try to break the overtime tie.

Weather has dealt the baseball and softball a low blow.  The softball game of Northern Nash taking on Topsail in the third round of the state playoffs have been moved to Wednesday at 6:pm at Topsoil

Faith Christian who was hosting a third round private school playoff game against Northside Christian Academy of Charlotte has been moved to 5pm Wednesday.

Rocky Mount High school will be hosting their end of the year sports banquet Thursday night. If you are interested in going call the main office to purchase a $10 ticket. Supplies are low.  Demand for tickets has been high since the football players will be getting their championship rings during the football segment.  Dinner starts at 5pm.

Gryphons Heading Back To Football Jamboree

Whether it is the Holiday basketball tournament  at Christmas or the football jamboree there is only two ways to get invited.  The first is you are expected to be a powerhouse next year in football.  It might be the coat tails of the state championship last season in football but the Gryphons are heading back to the Highschoolot football jamboree.  The second possible reason is the players that next season will be highly recruited and the Gryphons have one of the top recruiting talents for next season and several others that are getting looks after they were seen in the playoffs.

You might remember that back in basketball state championship and the recruitment of Tashawn Mabry the Gryphons back around 2010 got the Gryphons in the Holiday Christmas tournament two years in a row.  Since then we have not had a recruit as highly valuable as Mabry and have not been invited  since.  The Christmas tournament loves to showcase highly recruited players especially if they are headed to a Triangle schools to play college ball.

There are 14 teams starting at 12:30 during the August Saturday will play another team for an hour and forty minutes.  The Gryphons will hit the field at 5:40 and they will scrimmage a foe from last  year's playoff South Johnston. The games wil be played at Cardinal Gibbons high school and don't worry we will remind you come August.

Lady Gryphons traveled to Jacksonville Monday night and anyone who follows soccer whether boys or girls know that the Cardinals are a powerhouse in soccer and they have been a thorn the the Gryphons sides for years.  So the third round Rocky Mount travels to Jacksonville and the Lady Gryphons make the trip without leading scorer Sarah Bland who was out of state.

Talk about putting yourself in a hole before the start but the Lady Gryphons got a first half goal from Katie Moss to tie the score at one at the half.  Two quick second half goals give Jacksonville the lead that they will not give up and the soccer season is over for the Lady Gryphons losing 5-1  They finish the season at 17-7.

Tuesday night the Lady Knights of Northern Nash the only Big East team still alive in softball travel to Topsail the third seed in the 3-A playoffs but they have a 23-3 record. Northern 16-5 and the sixth seed play at 6pm Tuesday.  Topsail averages eight runs a game while Northern is slightly less than eight.  Northern gives up 4.5 runs agame while Topsail is stingy on defense giving up only 1.5 runs per game.  The Lady Knights the last Nash County public school playing in any sport other than track and field have a major test at the beach.

Faith Christian continues their playoff play in the private school playoffs and since everybody else's baseball season is over this will be a game that could be a real classic game.  Faith 18-2 will host Northside Christian Academy  of Chatlotte 18-5 at 5 pm Tuesday.  Could be the last high school game of the season in the area until summer or Legion ball cranks up.

So Much Going On

There is so much going on this time of year especially when there are several teams from this area advancing into all the state playoffs there is just not enough room to keep up with it all in one day.  Here are the local results from the state Eastern  Regional Track Championship where both the Nash Central girls and the Southern Nash Boys finished third.  Here is the list of every person from Nash County who finished in the top eight in any event.

Girls:
100 Meter Hurdles-Myka Hedgepeth Nash Central 5th
100 Meters Dash- Laneeja Shepard Rocky Mount 2nd, Teyanna Dessaure Rocky Mount 7th
200 Meters Dash- Michaela Nelms Nash Central 5th
300 Meters Hurdles- Anaiya Harris Nash Central Harris Nash Central 3rd
3200 Meters run- Halie Huffman Northern Nash 7th, MacKenzie Proctor  Northern Nash 8th
400 Meter Dash- Michaela Nelms Nash Central 1st,  Brittany Beckford Rocky Mount 3rd, Carisha Leonard Nash Central 4th, Diamond Ward Southern Nash 8th
4x100 Relay- Nash Central 3rd, Rocky Mount 7th
4x200 Relay- Nash Central 2nd, Rocky Mount 5th
4x400 Relay- Nash Central 1st
4x800 Relay- Nash Central 5th
800 Meter Run- Carisha Leonard Nash Central 2nd
Discus- Keyanna Spivey Rocky Mount 4th
High Jump- Miya Spivey Nash Central 2nd, Anaiya Harris Nash Central 5th
Pole Vault- Sarah Hicks Nash Central 3rd, Myka Hedgepeth Nash Central 6th
Shot Put- Keyanna Spivey Rocky Mount 2nd, Vanessa Ward Rocky Mount 8th

Boys:
100 Meters Dash- Nadir Thompson Southern Nash 3rd
110 Meter Hurdles- D'Jahe Ruffin Nash Central 2nd, Jonathan Romero Rocky Mount 3rd, Tremain Andrews Southern Nash 6th
1600 Meter Run- Coleman Cherry Northern Nash 2nd
200 Meter Dash- Nadir Thompson Southern Nash 1st
300 Meter Hurdles- Jonathan Romero Rocky Mount 1st, Malcolm Wade Nash Central 4th, Je'Tijah Smith 7th
3200 Meter Run- Coleman Cherry Northern Nash 3rd, Jordan Richardson Northern Nash 7th
400 Meter Dash- Tyreke Mills Northern Nash 5th, Kevon Whitehead Rocky Mount 7th
4x100 Relay- Rocky Mount 5th
4x200 Relay- Rocky Mount 5th
4x400 Relay- Southern Nash 4th Nash Central
4x800 Relay- Northern Nash 7th
800 Meter Run- Stephen Whitehead Northern Nash 4th
Discus- Sherrod Greene Rocky Mount 7th
High Jump- JaClayton Freeman Rocky Mount 1St, Malcolm Wade Nash Central 5th, Isaiah Morris Rocky Mount 6th, NaJuoson Cooper Nash Central 8th
Long Jump-  Jaquay Mitchell Southern Nash 1st, Justus Locus Nash Central 4th
Shot Put- Sherrod Greene Rocky Mount 1st
Triple Jump- Jaquay Mitchell Southern Nash 1st

Regional Champions:
Girls :
400 Meter Dash- Michaela Nelms Nash Central
4x400 Relay-  Nash Central
Boys-
200 Meter Dash Nadir Thompson Southern Nash
300 Meter Hurdles- Jonathan Romero Rocky Mouth
High Jump- JaClayton Freeman Rocky Mount
Long Jump- Jaquay Mitchell Southern Nash
Shot Put- Sherrod Greene Rocky Mount
Triple Jump- Jaquay Mitchell Southern Nash
Congratulations to all the winners as they will advance to Greensboro this weekend in the state championships.

Not Enough Mirrors

You know if you are in a barber shop and they have mirrors on both walls facing each other, if you are sitting in the right spot it looks like 100 of you sitting in the chair.  Rocky Mount had one pitcher all season and mirrors every other time and tonight Triton had no trouble with the Gryphon mirrors.

Triton scored four in the first, three in the second, two in the third and another in the fourth.  Finally the Gryphons held them scoreless in the fifth but by that time Triton had all they needed to win in five innings 10-0.

The Gryphons only choice in a game like this is to score runs themselves but collecting only three hits Logan Pearce, David  Harrison and Jamar Ellis with walks the Gryphons left the bases loaded twice  but failed to cross the plate.  The Hawks pounded out 12 hits and three errors by the Gryphon defense didn't help the Gryphon cause.  The Gryphon finish the season 13-9.

Hunt got knock out in the baseball playoffs 8-5 by Orange County and Fike was eliminated by Corinith Holders 2-0.  Baseball season is over for the Big East.

There will be no third round for the Hunt Warriors in softball as they lose 11-0 to Lee County.  It took  an extra inning but the Lady  Knights of Northern Nash remain alive in the softball playoffs winning in the eighth inning 4-3.  You know any time two teams are equal and have to play more to decide a winner it is exciting but playoffs extra play is thrilling to win. The Knights play at Topsoil in the third round.

The soccer is a different story as three teams made it to the second round and all three will play in round three.  The big story is Hunt's upset of the top seed Terry Sanford.  Tied 1-1 they played two ten minute over times and two five minutes sudden death over times and we're still tie at 1.  In the shoot out Hunt wins 4-2 and advances to the third.

Fike had no trouble at all with Burlington Williams winning 8-1. They travel in round three to the third seed Corinith Holders.  Rocky Mount advances after a home win over Richlands 3-1.  The Gryphons are a 10 seed and will now have to travel to Jacksonville the two seed in Jacksonville.

The last couple of weeks big News has come across the state concerning Eastern Alamance the team that won their first 14 football games until they ran into the Gryphons. Seems they use an ineligible player through a clerical error and has forfeited the entire season.  They also had to forfeit all basketball wins four games in the first semester once the error was found.

This brings up a real question about what if's.  Suppose EA had of beaten the The Gryphons and surely the question by every team that they played the first three rounds can be asked.   Since a forfeit constitutes a win can we go play in the next round all over again.  The answer is of course no but look at what could or does happen when ever any teams mis deeds are not caught as they happen.  EA would not have been in the playoffs at all and other teams in their conference would have moved up in other brackets.  Even the Gryphons may have played the fourth playoff game at home instead of on the road.    The NCHSAA fined Eastern Alamance 19,000 dollars which was a 500 dollar fine for the ineligible player and they have to return all playoff monies which is about 18,500 dollars.

Sport Season Ends At Wesleyan

Friday was  the last sport still alive at North Carolina Wesleyan was tennis that won the USA South crown way back in the middle of April when the entire spring conference tournaments were here in Rocky Mount.

The Battling Bishops earned their way into the NCAA Div III playoffs and finally this weekend took part as the Battling Bishops met Washington and Lee on Friday and And the playoffs hopes of the Battling Bishops are over losing to W&L 5-4

Last sports season was the first time that I had ever been on the PA at any Wesleyan Sporting event and I will begin my second season starting with football on September 10th.  Boy, do they have a doozy to start off with.  Mount Union Ohio will be coming to Bishop Stadium,  Those that are familiar with Division III football knows that Mount Union is for DIII what Alabama is to DI.  They are the Giant of the division.  They are the defending National champion and have won 12 DIII titles in football.

Mount Union is the mother lode of DIII football.  There will be no reason that this game will not sell out of tickets in advance.  The Battling Bishops will go to Alliance Oh  for the return match  in 2017.
This is the home opener for the Bishops but will be their second game of the season as they open Labor Day weekend with a Trip to Stevenson University.

The 2015-2016 athletic year for Battling Bishop athletes was a very good year.  The men won the President's Cup as having the best overall sports record in the conference.  They were the men's tennis champions garnering 13 points. They collected another 11in basketball for a grand total of 51 points beating out Methodist at 49.5.  They won despite not having a cross country team.

The women finished seventh of the twelve teams in the USA South,  Women's tennis grabbed 11 points and softball 10.5 to lead the way in NCW's 39 points.  Piedmont was the women's division winner collecting 68 point during the school year.

The overall President's Cup standing adding both the men and women together the Battling Bishops finished 5th with 90 points.  They trailed the overall winner Methodist 103.5, Piedmont 99, Maryville 95 Covenant 90 which ties the Bishops.

Today in Burlington the doubles team from Rocky Mount Tyler Brice and George Shannon were beaten in the round of 16 by a team Marvin Ridge by a score of 6-2 a 7-5.

What To Look For

Rocky Mount will host a round two baseball game against Triton High Saturday night at 6pm.  The Gryphons have fought all year having one pitcher that can do it all and anytime there was two or more games hope they out hit the other team in games two and three on the week.  It is now playoff time and it is face the music time for Rocky Mount.  Every step of the way in the playoffs you face a better team and more than likely better hitting and pitching.

Up next for the Gryphons is Triton from Irwin.  They have an overall record of 15-8. They were 6-4 in conference play. They have shown power hitting nine home runs on the  season.  Their team pitching ERA is 3.21 which is excellent.  They even get a no hitter from their fourth winningest pitcher in round one.  They have shown speed stealing 63 bases which is about three steals per game.  despite being seeded 24th the Gryphons have not been given an easy road to round three.

NE Guilford brought a nice crowd with them in round one and they were very supportive of their team.  Rocky Mount's fans not to be outdone  created a true playoff atmosphere in a competitive round one game.  Rocky Mount's four runs constituted an out burst for them.  In their last four conference games the scored a 2-0 victory, a 1-0 win, a 9-1 loss in the rain at Fike  and a 1-0 victory over Hunt.  It did take nine innings to score four on Tuesday.

This season has proven that against a good pitcher Rocky Mount has struggled to score runs.  Would think that there will be no chance  for the rest of the season as long as it last that they will  face nothing but good pitching.  The Gryphon defense has again especially  the infield has been solid all year.  Senior Forest Bell who started at shortstop for two years moved to third.  He has been able to play three positions on the infield when pitching changes were needed 3rd, second and short.  Logan Pearce has been solid at short all season.  Until a cracked finger tip happened in the first conference game he had been tearing the cover off the ball.  Will Hedgepeth at second has been Mr. Reliable all season.  Jake Philbeck has solidified the infield with his play at 1st.  Just as capable at 3rd when pitching require infield changes.

This team record now stands at 13-8.  The low point on the year they were 4-6 so this team has played some very good baseball since at 9-2.  They will have to win without my coaching from the press box Saturday.  Daughter Morgan graduates from Campbell at 9am and we have a party in our back yard scheduled at four.  Praying for a Gryphon rainout.

Foster Lander of the Rocky Mount Telegram quoted in the Wednesday Paper that Pat Smith when asked about future pitching arrangements said.  I've got to go down to Venezuela or Puerto Rico and find another boy who can pitch for us.  Anyone who knows Pat knows that when he walks inside the fence and puts on his uniform number 20 he is all business.  For him that is about as funny as you will ever get.

You know Rocky Mount has a glorious past in baseball.  Right now four former players are getting paid to play baseball in almost every level of baseball.  This Week former Gryphon Thomas Berry was named the Peach Belt Desinated hitter of the year after hitting 341 on the season.  He has 13 home runs, 12doubles, 45 walks and 54 rbi.  His slugging percentage is 636 and an on base percentage of 489. He is tied as the all time Lander home run hitter with 28.  He is second all time in Lander walks 148.  This season he is fourth in the nation in walks in NCAA D II play.  This weekend  Lander is in Florence SC in the Peach Belt tournament where  9th ranked Lander hopes to qualify for the NCAA tournament for the second time in three years. Two former Gryphons "Baseball" Britt Johnson as third base coach and Jim Leggett pitching coach give Lander a Gryphon flavor.    Earlier this week former Gryphon Cody Smith was named the CIAA left hander pitcher of the year for his pitching at Chowan.  Way to go Gryphons!!!

Weather A Scheduling Factor

There is an old saying that Tuesday night during the Rocky Mount-Northeast Guilford playoff baseball game that the fans got their money's worth. This game was intense from the get go. Rocky Mount's defense was better as three of the four runs Rocky Mount scored were related to poor execution by the Rams defense.  Rocky Mount blooped out eight hits while the Rams had six but they were quality hits getting a homer and three doubles which accounted for all three of their runs.  It takes more bloops that one to score unless the pitcher walks batters or the defense helps out with errors.

The Gryphons used their ace David Harrison who gave it all that he had going 7.3 innings.  There are two thoughts here.  From the press box Harrison got out a dangerous hitter in the eighth and the next few hitters were the bottom of the lineup. Coach Pat Smith either gambled that he could use his bull pen to get two outs and score in the bottom of the eighth to win and not wear out Harrison.  The other is that he was looking toward Harrison's future and didn't want to endanger his arm. 

  Forest Bell walked the only batter he faced and not being able to afford to give up anything Smith  made a change to Will Hedgepeth who got the final two outs in the eighth but the Gryphons failed to win it in their turn at bat. Hedgepeth did what players have to do when you have reached do or die time in playoffs. He pitched like a veteran instead of a second baseman.  The Gryphons rewarded Hedgepeth with a ninth inning run and a home game in the second round.  Game Two is set for 6pm Saturday night at Gryphon Stadium.

The weather forecast is not good for Thursday and Friday.  Going nine innings a team that only has one really good pitcher a second game in a week presents a real problem.  You can assume catcher Zack Keeter will get the start in game two.  He has been the best of the Gryphon's other throwers all year.  By not using Keeter in relief Tuesday and there is a thought here.  If Keeter pitches in relief he has already been behind the plate for seven innings and it is better that he pitch fresh the next time out. 

There is now a possibility that David Harrison could throw a couple of innings or more  of relief which all pitchers pitch in practice bull pen work on the middle days between starts.  If victory is to come in round two Keeter will need to pick the Gryphons up as Will Hedgepeth did on Tuesday.  Even after his performance I think there will be confidence in Smith to use Hedgepeth again if needed.

So if you are a Rocky Mount fan a Saturday game being later in the week the more David Harrison could throw more than two innings.  Don't count out if rain forces games to Monday Harrison is not on the mound from the start.  We are at the point in the season when there is no waiting till tomorrow because a loss and there is no baseball tomorrow.  The weather forecast looks better for Saturday and one thing you don't want to do is for a team to ride up I-95 only to turn around and go home because of rain.  Saturday looks like the best day for the remainder of this week. 

The Big East is off to a good start in soccer.  Hunt went on the road and beat Western Alamance 2-1.  Fike and Rocky Mount posted shutouts on Tuesday Fike 9-0 over Havelock and Rocky Mount 5-0 over Gray's Creek.  Northern is the only Big East loser dropping a 7-0 decision at Williams High in Burlington.

Softball saw two teams lose Tuesday.  Orange beat Fike 20-1 and Webb shutout Southern Nash 10-0.  Wednesday Hunt Beat Cedar Ridge 10-3and Northern Nash will host in the second round after a 8-4 victory over Western Harnett.

The Gryphons were joined by Hunt on Tuesday in baseball as a trip to Havelock was a Warrior win 6-4.  Northern Nash lost to Corinth Holders 1-0.  Fike made a trip to Southern Lee a day after Fike Coach Buck Edmonson became a father and his Golden  Demons gave him a 1-0 victory over Southern lee.

I understand that due to weather concerns the state tennis singles and doubles have been moved to a indoor facility in Greensboro.  If all four classifications are there it will be two long days for those who advance in the classification including Rocky Mount's doubles team of Tyler Brice and George Shannon.

Live To Play Another Day

Round Two Saturday 6:00pm at home against Triton

The Rocky Mount Gryphons left the bases loaded in the first and seventh innings. They scored once in the first and could have gotten more.  The seventh needing one to tie the Gryphons got one but still left the bases loaded.  The ninth inning arrived and with one out  Forest Bell lined a single to left that hopped by the left fielder and by the time the throw was back in the infield Bell stood on third.

The Rams intentionally walked David Harrison and Jake Philbeck to load the bases. That took away two big bats out of the batters box because their runs were not important now only Bell at third.  Zack Keeter hit a line drive in the gap in left field.  Any other night it is a double but all the Gryphons needed was for Forest Bell to touch home to win a dramatic 4-3 nine inning game against North East Guilford who came into the game a 25th seed who won five more games than the Gryphons did on the season.

The Rams struck first as starter David Harrison showed some nerves walking the lead off runner who scored on a double by short stop Carter Williams.  Bottom half of the first the Gryphons responded scoring twice.  The first after Logan Pearce walked and the Rams starting pitcher Jacob Brown tried a pick off but his throw went in the right field corner and put Pearce on third.  Forest Bell walked.  Pearce scored on and RBI single by David Harrison and Bell scored three batters later on an error by the Rams third baseman.

The Rams tied it in the third on a no doubter home run by DH Bryce Mericka.  The Rams took the lead in the sixth after Mericka was hit by a pitch and came home to score on a double by the pitcher Jacob Brown.  Their last chance in the seventh the Gryphons got a single from Josh Pittman a walk to Logan Pearce.  Bell bunted both runners to second and third.  Harrison was intentionally walked .  Jake Philbeck hit a grounder to second and the only play was to get Philbeck at first and a tie game as Pittman scored.  A hit batter loaded the bases but on to extra innings.

David Harrison  pitched  7 and one  third innings giving up five hits walked one hit two batters and allowed a home run.   Harrison struck out eight on the night.  The hero of the night is Will Hedgepeth who in relief pitches one and two thirds and grabs the win.  He gave up a single and struck out one.  Rams pitcher Jacob Brown went seven innings allowing only six hits and struck out six.  Brody Holloman in two innings took the lost but the three of the four runs on the night can be blamed on defensive miscues.

The Rocky Mount Gryphons advance to round two where they will face Triton a 24 seed who beat the nine seed Southern Lee 3-0 on a no hitter by Triton.  Good questions as to when this next round is played as the weather calls for rain Wednesday- Thursday and Friday. Stay tuned to this station as we will pass it along as soon as when we know the game will tried to be played.

There was a heart breaker at Northern Nash as the visitors Corinth Holders won 1-0.  Hunt traveled to Havelock and they win 6-4.  Understand Fike's coach Buck Edmonson's wife was due to have a baby today so they will not play until Wednesday.

The Lady Gryphons won their opening round soccer game beating Grays Creek 5-0.

Spring Brackets

Gryphons play Tuesday 6:30 against NE Guilford
Knights Host Corinth Holders at 7:pm
Hunt at Havelock 7pm
Fike At Southern Lee 7pm


The Big East will only get four teams into the baseball playoffs as both Nash Central and  Southern Nash  did not get an invite.  Rocky Mount 12-8 as the top seed from the Big East will get and eight seed and should they win their opening round game would be high enough to get a second home game.  They will however play a team even though they are a 25 seed have a better over all record than Rocky Mount.  Northeast Guilford 14-8 will be traveling to Rocky Mount in the opening round.

Northern Nash 9-11 now knows how important it is to have swept Hunt twice as winning the tie breaker with Hunt gets a home game and a seeding of 14th and will be hosting Corinth Holders 13-7 a team they played during the regular season is 19th.  Hunt 12-10 as the three seed even though they were tied for first will be seeded 21st and will hit the road to Havelock 14-8 and the 12 seed.  Fike gets in over Nash Central with a better overall record of 11-9 but are listed in the 30th spot which will pit them against number three seed Southern lee 19-3.

Remember all games are scheduled to start Wednesday  but if both teams get together and agree they can start Tuesday.  Why would starting Tuesday make any difference?  It gives you an extra day to get in the first round if weather becomes and issue  and by playing Tuesday gives you the opportunity to move  second round games to Friday to give Saturday as  a rain makeup in case weather is part of your life.  You surely don't want to finish up round two on Monday and turn around and play the 3rd round Tuesday and if still alive a fourth round Friday.

Softball the Big East gets four spots and leading the way is Northern Nash 13-5 who is seeded 6th and will be hosting 27th seed Western Harnett 12-10.  Should the Lady Knights win they will also earn a home second round game.  Hunt  9-6 gets a high enough seed that they get one home game and a 13th seeding and will host Cedar Ridge 20th seed and 14-9.  Southern Nash 8-11 the third team from the Big East is 18th and riding a bus to Oxford to Webb High school 14-8 and 15th seed.  The final BE team in is Fike 11-9 and a 25th seeding is on the road to 8 seed Orange High.  Ist round is suppose to start Wednesday.

  Five of the six teams in the Big East have made the playoffs in the women's soccer.  Fike  10-4-2  draws  the highest seed at number six and will be home and will be hosting Havelock 7-8-4 and the number 27 seed in the state brackets.   Rocky Mount 15-6  gets a home match and will start with the 10th seed and will face 23rd seed Grays Creek 13-7. 

That is it for  teams hosting everyone else will be on the road and they are.  17th seed Hunt 11-6-2 will travel to 16 seed Western Alamance 9-4-2.  The number four from the Big East Northern Nash 13-6 and a 22nd seed  will head down I-85 to Burlington Williams11-4-2 and 11th in the seeding.  Southern Nash sneaks in by the tip of their nose as the last team  in 32nd 13-6 and will take on the top seed Terry Sanford 18-0.  All first round  matches are scheduled for Wednesday but teams may play Tuesday in some cases.

This past Saturday during the Regional singles and doubles a team from Rocky Mount won the Regional and have qualified for the State Championships this weekend in Burlington.  Tyler Brice and George Shannon will be competing Friday in the round of 16.  A win would lead to a second match Friday afternoon.

Brice a sophomore in singles this season was 14-1 and Shannon another sophomore was also 14-1. Together as a doubles team they combined  as a team to be 15-1.  The future looks bright for these two during their high school careers.

Even North Carolina Wesleyan Men's tennis team got bracket news today.  Wesleyan 15-8 will play Washington and Lee 15-8 either the 12 or 13th in the first round of the NCAA  Division III Tennis Tournament in Atlanta.  The winner will meet Emory University the 13th or 14th.  Emory is 20-3.

Selection Monday

Today the North Carolina High School Athletic Association will be releasing the brackets in three spring sports.  Baseball, Softball and Soccer all find out their fates of whether they made the field, get a home game or hit the road and where they go and who do they meet.  Wednesday is the first day of action for all three but whether teams play Tuesday which would be early or Thursday which would be late will have to be agreed upon by each team playing each other.  Round two is schedule for Saturday and if Rocky Mount survives their opening round baseball  game that will be a bad day for the Doughtie Family considering daughter Morgan graduates from Campbell Saturday and about 70 people will be in our back yard Saturday afternoon.

Baseball:  Look for Rocky Mount 12-8  to host and against who will be announced this afternoon.  Northern Nash 9-11 should host.  Hunt 12-12 is the last Big East team guaranteed a spot while Nash Central  10-14 and Fike  11-10 will have to hope for the best and they get an invite to extend their season.  Southern Nash 10-14 and as the sixth seed from the Big East is doubtful but remember the jumble basketball much like baseball got all six teams in the tournament.

Softball:  Northern Nash 14-5 will be hosting and they will find out who this afternoon when the softball brackets are released.  Hunt 9-7 probably will host.   Southern Nash 8-11 and Fike 12-9 will be in a wait and see mode as to their fate.   Nash Central 3-19 and Rocky Mount 1-19 probably have already packed away the equipment for the season.  There just has to be 32 teams in the east with better records than both the Lady Bulldogs and Lady Gryphons.

Soccer:  Fike 16-4-2 the queens of the Big East will be hostings gainst who will be announced today.  Rocky Mount 15-6  and Hunt 11-6-2 will be in wait to see on their bracket position.  Northern Nash 14-6 fourth but only lost conference games should make the show.  Southern Nash 8-13 and Nash Central 5-13-1 can only hope.

Saturday every athlete who did well in the conference track and field will be in Wilson at Fike High School as they will be hosting the East Regional Track and Field championships.  The event starts at 8am.

Blowouts And Then the Next Time

So far during the NBA playoffs there have been several games that the scores have been what you could say were blowouts.  If you look back at the history of sports a blowout in one game does not necessarily correlate to a win in the next game.  Some cases it does not even suggest that you will even when the series in which a blowout occurred for the team winning the blowout.

Just maybe the best ever game six blowout in the 1960 World Series the New York Yankees beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 16-3 to even that series at 3 game a piece.  All three wins by New York were by ten runs or more.  Game seven is the famous Bill Mazeroski's homerun in the bottom of the ninth to beat those hated Yankees.  The blowout didn't help in game seven.

One reason in baseball is that old saying that momentum is only as good as the next starting pitcher.  What about basketball?  Just this week the San Antonio Spurs drubbed the Oklahoma City Thunder 124-92 in game one of their series.  After a few days off from the last series San Antonio played perfect basketball and the Thunder never had a chance.

New game and a new night the Spurs didn't play nearly as well as the first game and after one of the most unusual finishes ever in a basketball game the Thunder won game two 98-97.  The finish to this game rivals the 1972 Olympic finals when the Russians beat the Americans after the refs replayed the final second seems like five times until the Russians won.

What happened to make the Thunder play better and what happen to the almost perfect basketball that the Spurs played in game one?  Was there any doubt that the Spurs would comeback and put up a great effort in Oklahoma City after the Spurs felt robbed by the refs in game two?

So why is it that some days you get up and feel great and the next can't hardly put one foot in front of the other.  Back in my disc jockey days I went to work one day with the flu and felt awful and could hardly hold my head up.  I could not wait for my show to end so I could go home and go to bed.  I received several calls from listeners about how funny I had been that day.  Even when my shift was over and I went to the office to tell our manager I had to leave he said to me that I had been rocking and he never suspected I was sick. I don't remember one thing about that day other than the agony I was in.

 There are all kinds of situations when players were sick they played some of their greatest games. Michael Jordan playoff night comes to mind when he plaster 50 points in a game.

I know on certain night teams biorhythms just don't mesh and when that happens when another team is doing everything right it leads to terrible games.  Then the next night whether a team felt embarrassed by their performance or the winning team takes the pounded team too lightly  a reversal happens and that team that was hapless one night is a winner the next night.

Why does that happen?  It's sports

Girls Beast Of The Big East

The Rocky Mount Lady Gryphons won their 14th consecutive conference  Track and Field championships this week.  That will carry you back all the way for the entire seven years of the Big East, all four years of the NEW 3A and the last three years when the Gryphons were classified as 4A in the then Big East 4A.

The Ladies out scored  Nash Central  208- 176 to take the crown.  Laneeja Sheppard was named the outstanding Female in the event after she collected wins in the 100 meters, Triple jump and part of the winning relay team in the 4x100.

Rocky Mount boys were not to be out done by the girls and won the boys side of the meet beating out Nash Central who finished second followed by Northern Nash and Southern Nash.  Gryphon Johathan Romero won three events the Long Jump, 110 meter high hurdles and the 300 meter high hurdles and those three victories got him named as the male athlete of the meet.

Nest Saturday May 14th is the next scheduled event for all teams and athletes who have qualified to the Regional which will be held at Fike High School.  The event starts at 8am and any athlete who has an early event will be up early to get there.  It has to start early as it will take all day to get all the events in pending any rain delay.

Finally during this week's NCHSAA meetings the board of directors of the N C  high school athletic association is going to try a different method of football and basketball seedings in the fall and winter of 2016.  The main purpose is to not have conference teams face off against each other at least in the opening round which the Big East has faced several times in the past few years.

All conference champions will be seeded and any tournament champion in basketball will be seeded if it is not the regular season champion.  All others invited to the playoffs will be placed according to record and I think any time there is a conflict with two conference teams facing each other in the first round the unseeded team will be moved else where.

The state will be divided into for sections East West, Mideast and Midwest.  That to me tells me that any time four teams from the Big East are in any playoff tournament two will be in the east and two will be placed in the Mideast.  Should a fifth team make it because of over all record I bet you can count on that team being shipped to the Midwest.

This does not guarantee that conference teams will not meet in the second round but it is not likely.  So using my thinking cap I would think the east will be say from the coast and include every school to say Raleigh.  The Mid East would be say the I-85-I-40 corridor and Midwest the Greensboro area and Winston Salem towards Charlotte area,  and the West being Statesville West to Tennessee.  Obviously it will have to be divided where the same amount of schools would be in the same region so don't count on my figuring to be perfect.

This is a step in the right direction as long as you are going to stick to the 64 teams in 3-A being in the playoffs every year.  I still will stick to my guns that if they dropped one round we would eliminate the 3-7 or worse teams from the playoffs and quit having 70-0 opening round football games or 85-36 first round basketball games.  Let's do like tennis let the best play the best from the opening round.

Courageous Cougar

The NCHSAA has awarded Quontellas Norwood  of SouthWest Edgecombe High School the Courage Award for the school year 2015-2016.  If you recall back in August of 2015 after a Cougar Football game Norwood was shot while driving a car in Rocky Mount.  Asking for help by knocking on a near by door Norwood received treatment and surgery from his wounds.  It took four weeks to recover but Norwood played a vital part in the Cougar run during conference play and in the state playoffs.  Norwood won the award at the year end State meetings held Thursday at the Dean Smith Center in Chapel Hill.

There are three weeks remaining in the ACC baseball race and only ten of the conference's teams will get invited to play  in the end of the season tournament.  Right now Miami has the  best record in the conference with a 14-5 record.  Florida state comes next at 14-6.  Louisville 14-7 ranks third and N C State stands fourth at 12-7.  All four of these teams seems to be shoo ins to make it to Durham when the ACC tournament starts May 24th.

Virginia stands at 14-10 and have a little distance between themselves and everyone else still in the hunt.  Georgia Tech is the only other ACC school not sporting a losing record at this point and they are 10-10. That makes them sixth in the standings and sixth is a magic number for only having to play four games to win the tournament.  Tuesday the 24th 7th place will play 10th and 8th will meet 9th and the two winners will make the top eight  and join the field.  Any team 11th or more the season is over.

 Wake Forest 10-11,Notre Dame 9-10, Clemson 11-13, North Carolina 9-12, Boston College 9-13 Pitt 8-12 and Duke 10-14 all have shots at making  the field. Starting with Georgia Tech right on through Duke  eight teams are just two games apart in the standings so every series the next three weeks can get you in the top ten  or out of the NCAA tournament.

This weekend N C State 8th in college baseball RPI and a real shot at hosting a regional and possibly eligible to host  a Super Regional plays at Clemson  9th in the RPI but 9th in the ACC and if the tournament started today Clemson will play the Tueday play in game.  This series is huge for both.

Louisville 2nd in the RPI visits  Carolina 14th in RPI but 10th in the ACC standings.  If Carolina can make a push to make the final ten or the top six teams in Durham they must win two of three this weekend.  Having missed the NCAA last year Carolina needs as many wins a possible to insure life in Durham.  Wake Forest heads to Boston to play BC and both need wins to stay or go to top ten spots. Duke has this weekend off from ACC play so they  need some of those ahead of them to lose more than they win this weekend.

One of the great features of the ACC tournament in North Carolina is that there has been record attendance every year especially in Durham with Duke, Carolina and State so close to the DBAP.  If say only State is the only local team to make the final eight can the Wolfpack faithful fill up the ball park enough to even show reason to keep the tournament in the Tar Heel State.  All the political pressure being applied to the ACC about any event being held any where in North Carolina  money raised through attendance will always out weigh outside pressure.

A Georgia Tech - Miami game played at any site is only going to have a thousand people there including a 10:00am game in Durham.  In the past one of the reasons despite what Carolina or State's
seedings have been they always get the night time games because eight thousand will show up and if they play each other the place is not big enough for the possible crowds.

Duke, Wake, and Carolina have some work to do to get invites to this years tournament.  The Wolfpack has just as much work to hold on to what they have earned to date.  If all four could get to Durham then the crowds would probably break the existing records for attendance.  It would then be possible that a North Carolina school could be involved in every game played every day.

Four Rings For Battle

The men's tennis teams of the Big East that made the state playoffs have played their first round matches.  The top seed Fike defeated West Carteret 7-0 to advance to next week's second round.  Rocky Mount was not so lucky falling to Northern Guilford 6-0 to end their season at 12-3.  This weekend starts singles and doubles competition and Fike will not play a second round match until next week.

It is now official that Nash Central will drop to 2A and Franklinton will join what is now called the Big East 3-A.  Each one of these four year realignments when ever new teams come into a conference they sit down and one of the first things they do is decide what the name of the conference should be. With only Franklinton joining the now existing Big East 3-A there should be no need to change the name of the conference.  So as it stands now the school year 2016-2017 is the last as the Big East as we know it now.

Another change made by the NCHSAA board of directors is every sport but football can now have unlimited amount of players during off season workouts.   The past any workout could not field a full team during the the workouts.  They are limited to one hour and a half per workout.

Tonight the Rocky Mount High school football players and coaches will receive their state championship rings which they have all awaited since winning the state championship December 12th.  It is a private dinner with players, coaches and family members.   Not only will they all have memories for the rest of their lives of what occurred during the football season of 2015 but they will have proof on their fingers of their accomplishments.

Head football coach Jason Battle is a relatively young man.  Tonight as the head football coach of the Gryphons Battle will have to make room for high fourth state championship ring.  He was an assistant coach on the 2008 baseball state championship team.  2010 and again in 2012 he was on the sidelines for both basketball championships as an assistant.  If he has as successful next seven years as the past he will need to start finding room on his toes.

Chowan's Big Factor- Cody Smith

The Chowan University Hawks won their first ever CIAA baseball championship this past weekend coming out of the losers bracket to beat Winston Salem State twice to win the title.  Chowan will wait for the Division II NCAA Selection show on May 15th to see  where they will be playing in the playoffs.

The Hawks were lead this season by ALL CIAA pitcher Cody Smith from Rocky Mount High School.  Smith set a Chowan record winning nine games on the season while losing only  two.  He had the conference lowest ERA at 2.57 pitched sixty innings on the season.  The Hawks were 26-23 on the season so Smith accounted for one third of the Hawks win. He averaged over a strikeout per inning fanning 73 on the season.

Those who remember Cody from his Rocky Mount days was he could walk the bases loaded and then strike out the side.  This season he walked 38 batters which is about a half a walk an inning,  While pitching for the Gryphons he averaged over one per inning so this is a major improvement for Cody.

How valuable was Cody to the Hawks?  He pitched the final 3.1 innings in the winner take all game championship game in relief which was the second game of the day and  the Hawks had to win both.  The sophomore picked up the win by shutting down WSSU down the stretch.

Monday when the high school baseball brackets will be released the state will choose teams based on their conference finish.  The Big East had a three way tie so in a three way tie breaker Rocky Mount won the tie breaker so with this week's conference tournament washed out then the regular season conference seedings will prevail.

Rocky Mount beat Northern Twice, split with Hunt which Northern beat Hunt twice making Hunt fall to third.  Because Nash Central and Fike were able to get their game in the tournament in Monday night and since Nash Central won a dramatic 3-1 walkoff 3 run homer Nash Central will be seeded 4th and Fike 5th.  Southern will finish at number six.

Rocky Mount 12-8 and Northern 9-11 will be home for at least one game pending winning.  If both advance Northern may be on the road and Rocky Mount might get another home game.  Hunt is right on the border line  that if they were a high three seed and make the top 16 in the bracket they could get a first round home game but probably not with a 12-12 record.  Nash Central can expect to be on the road and Fike must hope as a five seed they get in at all but they do have a winning record for a five seed in a conference 11-10.

If there is one bad thing from not playing any more this week is for Rocky Mount and Northern they would not have played for 12 days before next Wednesday the 11th rolls around..

Nash Central With A Bang

GOODBYE BIG EAST TOURNAMENT: OFFICIALS FROM THE BIG EAST HAVE DECIDED TO SCRAP THIS WEEKS BASEBALL TOURNAMENT BECAUSE OF THE PENDING WEATHER TONIGHT AFTER LAST NIGHT'S DELAY OF THE SOUTHERN NASH-HUNT GAME.

THE ONE GAME PLAYED WAS A VERY IMPORTANT ONE AS THE NASH CENTRAL WIN OVER FIKE GIVES NASH CNETRAL A CONFERENCE FOUR SEED AND FIKE 5TH.  ROCKY MOUNT WILL HAVE 1ST NORTHERN SECOND GIVING THEM A HOME GAME  IN THE FIRST ROUND OF THE STATE PLAYOFFS.  HUNT TAKES THIRD SO THE STATE WILL HAVE A CLEAR PICTURE OF HOW THE BIG EAST SEEDINGS ARE WHEN THE SELECTIONS ARE MADE PUBLIC  BY NEXT MONDAY. 

The Rocky Mount Gryphons will host Nash Central Tuesday night at 7 pm after the Bulldogs trailing 1-0 in the bottom of the seventh  got a three run homer by Noah Schrock to shock Fike 3-1. The Bulldogs who beat Rocky Mount in both match ups this year.

Over in Wilson lightening got the better of the Sourhern Nash -Hunt game in the bottom of the third The Firebirds were leading 4-2 when the game was called and will continue at 7pm Tuesday which puts the winners semi final game with Northern Nash to Wednesday.  The forecast is not good for any baseball Tuesday.

The NCHSAA 3-A men's tennis seedings are out and the top team in the east Duel is Fike 14-2.   Rocky Mount  is 12-2 and will host Northern Guilford Wednesday afternoon at Rocky Mount High School.  Round two for winners is next week.  The indivual regionals are this weekend.

Down on the farm:  Brian Goodwin Continues to open eyes in Syracuse NY in AAA International League.  Property of Washington Nationals. Now batting 337 which is the top average on the Chiefs of those playing every day.  There was a time when the Nationals wanted him to hit more home runs but this season or even back in fall they reverted for Brian being a get on base guy and he is succeeding.  He has 24 hits in 71 at bats with six doubles, a triple and he hit his first home run of the season Saturday.  The home run in the ninth inning tied the game eventually won by the Chiefs in 12 innings.

Benton Moss : A ball playing in the Florida State League.  Property of the Tampa Bay Rays.Pitched in five games starting four.  On a pitch count of 75 pitches per game.  ERA 3.75 having pitched 24 innings.  His control has been excellent walking only one batter to date and striking 20.

Hobbs Johnson: AA Buloxi Shuckers in the Southern League. Property of Milwaukee Brewers. Been moved to short relief pitcher.  Thus far this season pitched 10 innings  in seven appearances.  Walked seven batters. And ERA is 7.70.  As a short reliever it takes only one bad inning and ERA goes through the roof.

Collins Cuthrell:  Florence Freedom Independent organization in the Frontier League.  Left the Rocky Mount Gryphons dugout last week to join Freedom.  Season starts May 13th.  Listed as outfielder.

Top Three Battling For Home Playoff Games

It has been said many times even this basketball season "What is the purpose of High school end of season tournaments? ". This baseball season the three teams tied at 6-4 Rocky Mount, Northern Nash and Hunt need to make to the championship game in order to secure the top two sports when the playoff seedings come out.

Each conference is guarantee  half of their total conference membership qualifies for the state playoffs in baseball.  Anybody else their overall record is the only way they might get in.  Three Big East teams are in.  If there was no tournament all three Rocky Mount 12-8,Northern Nash 9-11and Hunt 12-12 would be in.  Only Rocky Mount and Northern Nash  and would get high enough seeds to give them home game.

Of those three teams since they are tied making it to the finals in paramount to secure the two top spots.  Fike 11-10  Nash Central 9-14 and Southern Nash 10-13.  If any of the bottom three were to win the title and this year it is truly possible one of the top three could fall to fourth by not making the finals.

How important is winning a semi final game if you are Northern Nash and Rocky Mount. One advantage both have is the semi final will be their first game of the week while for the winners of opening round games they probably have pitched their best to get to the semi's.  Remember not a team in this league has two stopper pitchers so the Fike/Nash Central winner will play Rocky Mount. They have to pitch the best they have to beat each other as well as Southern Nash/Hunt winner.  Can anyone afford to gamble holding their best pitcher for one more day.

The question is this, can Rocky Mount afford to hold back David Harrison until the championship game because if they lose in the semi's David Harrison would be ten days between starts when the first round if state playoffs begin May 11th.

I don't think any team can afford to hold back anybody expecting to win and moving on to the next round because a loss might not be a next round.   So since of the four teams that play Monday, Hunt, Nash Central, Fike and Southern Nash if they make it to the finals that would be down to the bottom of the barrell in pitching.  It will be interesting to see how both Northern and Rocky Mount view their pitching in the semi's.  Regardless expect a high scoring championship game.

Nice Athletic Year At Rocky Mount

There was a point in the Rocky Mount Gryphon football season when they stood at 3-2 but won their last 11 games to win the State 3-A football championship.   The basketball season started losing the first seven games of the season.  There were a combination of reasons from  the football players had not joined the team because football went into mid December.  They also had injuries and when you add all that together just didn't play well.

By season's end the Gryphons managed to tie for first.  Now baseball starts 0-2 in conference play and were 4-6.  The modern teenager especially those that play baseball for the Gryphons  had a real adjustment in life when Pat Smith returned to Rocky Mount to be baseball coach.

To say the least Pat Smith is an old school coach that wants you to play baseball the way the game is suppose to be played.  He is a tell it like it is type of coach. Blunt might be a correct term.  Just might be that it took a little while to get use to the old man's ways.  The Gryphons finish the season winning eight out of ten.

Four of the six conference victories were shutouts. 1-0, 1-0, 1-0, 2-0.  So Rocky Mount won four games scoring 5 runs.

Their two other wins they scored 25.

One odd stat on the season the outfield made more errors than the infield.  The combination of Jake Philbeck at First, Will Hedgepeth at second, Logan Pearce at shortstop and Forest Bell at third was one of the best Gryphon  Infields in a while.

Baseball, Softball and soccer all starts the conference tournaments this week.  Monday baseball has Fike at Nash Central with the winner at Rocky Mount Tuesday.  Southern Nash at Hunt with the winner at Northern Nash Tuesday.  The two winners meet Thursday at highest seed still playing.

Soccer, Monday Nash Central at Hunt with winner at Rocky Mount Tuesday.  Southern Nash at Northern Nash with winner at Fike . The two winners meet Thursday at highest seed still playing.

Softball, Monday Rocky Mount at Fike with the winner at Northern Nash.  Nash Central at Southern Nash with winner at Hunt.  The two winners meet Thursday at highest seed still playing.

This afternoon there will be a meeting at Legion Field  at 5pm of all prospects interested in playing American Legion Baseball.  This is not a tryout only a meeting to gauge the interest for bringing  Legion Baseball back  to Rocky Mount after having failed to field a team last year.