The Fat Lady Sings

 Coleman Pitt Post 58 down one game to none in a two out of three series with Pitt County needed a victory tonight in Winterville and Post 58 comes up short losing 12-3. Jeremy Sloop took to the mount for Post 58 and P 58 bats gave him a 2-0 in the first.  PC responded with three in the second to take their first lead of the night. Coleman Pitt tied the game in the fourth at 3. PC retook the lead in the bottom of the fourth and lead 4-3 when CP58 had the bases loaded with only one out in the sixth.  A wild pitch strike out had the P58 runner on third trying to score but was tagged out at home to end  the Rocky Mount threat and with it a chance to either tie or take the lead.  From that point on it's all Pitt County

Post 58 needing to keep it close were not able to do it as Pitt County added four more runs to lead 8-3 after seven innings.They added four more in the eighth as for the night P58 had 8 errors  and Coleman Pitt Post 58 is knocked out of the State Playoffs 12-3.  PC outhit RM 10-7 so it is pretty easy to see defense failed to make the season continue.

This is coaches clinic week in Greensboro as the North Carolina High School Athletic Association prepares for the upcoming athletic season for 2012-13.  Part of the entertainment each night is the all-star games and last night basketball was front and center in the Greensboro Coliseum.  Rocky Mount high School had three players in both games and none of the three were able to say they played for the winning team as West dominated both the boys and the girls game.

The West girls beat the East 82-65 as Alexus Cooper was the second leading scorer for the East.  Tia Hudgins played for the East squad  but the East fell behind early and almost caught up late in the third quarter until the West stretched  the lead again in the fourth.

The boys game saw the East squad couldn't hit anything from the outside in the first half as they fell way behind  and were never able to catch up.  Terrill Hilliard scored 16 for the East as he also was the second leading scorer for the East.

One Foot In The Grave

There are those nights when the other team does wrong and it turns out right and that was tonight for Post 58.  Pitt County Post 39 banged out 17 hits in which only three could be considered solid hits the other 14 had eyes and went where Post 58 players were not.  Ten never even  left the infield. Then their pitcher  probably never threw a pitch all night that hit 80 miles an hour but in seven inning he never struck out one P58 player,  he only gave up four bleeding hits and when he left after pitching seven innings he was ahead 8-0.  Jarrett Ozimek was a pitcher P 58 was glad didn't come out in the eighth inning.

P39 used a three pitchers to finish up the game and they surrendered four walks two hit batters and only two hits a Coleman Pitt scored 6 runs to make it a respectable score but let me assure you this was never close  as Pitt County wins 11-6.  P58 now must win Tuesday at Pitt CC or the season is over.  Should they win Tuesday they then get another shot at home Wednesday night.

Jordan Taylor got two hits for P58 and Matthew Berry's Base loaded double in the ninth brought home three runs,  Speirs Miller, TylerWooten and Kyle Pratt found the other three P 58 hits.  P39 had two players with four hits Dalton Britt and Aaron Clark. Charlie Herring collect three while Austin Chang and Gray Dixon had two each.

Jeremy Lucas was the hard luck loser as he gave up seven runs but he pitched into the seventh inning scattering 12 hits but only two were hit in the air to the outfield. Spenser Ramsey, Chase Johnson and Aaron Crum finished up on the mound for P58 but they had about the same luck Lucas had.

There is no doubt about it P39 was the best team on the field tonight and Post 58 has to hope that they get their share of hits and can draw even in the series Tuesday night or the 2012 Legion season finishes Tuesday with a lost.  The lost drops Post 58 to 20-7 on the season

Playoff Plot Thickens

Round Two of the State American Legion playoffs start Monday night in Rocky Mount as Coleman Pitt Post 58 will host Pitt County Post 39 at 7PM at Gryphon Stadium.  The first round the Southern Division won three of the four match ups as only Rocky Mount is left standing representing the Northern Division.

Pit County finished second in the Southern Division and they split two games with P58 during the regular season.  This series is also a two out of three  and barring any weather issues Monday and Wednesday are the scheduled days for games in Rocky Mount.  Tuesday's  game two would be in Greenville.  The winner of this series will play the Wayne County-Kinston winner for the Area One East/West Finals.  This series is a three out of five.  The winner of that series earns a spot in the upcoming state tournament in Lenoir in late July and early August.

Even though the winner earns a spot in the state tournament there is still one more series to play as the finals of Area one would be against the teams from the Triangle area.  Both of those teams would already have earned spots in the state tournament so that series is back to a two of three.

To say the   least this was a very long weekend for the Junior Legion team from Post 58 after losing the opening game of the tournament Saturday morning in extra innings and falling into that dreaded losers bracket.   They were able to fight off elimination Saturday night with a ten inning win and this afternoon at Doak Field at N C State won their first game of the day beating a team from Cary called the Cary Colts 7-3.

They made out a new lineup card and stayed right on the field and in this game took on the Cary Bulls a Junior Legion team who this is was 27-0 and in the three games for them so far in this tournament had not had a team to stay as close as 13 runs in any game.  Post 58 took this game to extra innings as it was 3-3 after seven.  The Bulls were the visiting team and put seven runs on the board in the top of the eighth and P58 could not cut into the seven runs and lost 10-3.

Post 58 fails to qualify for the State Tournament but it is obvious that they gave this Bulls team a run for their money and it would have been very interesting to see if we had another shot against them what kind of result would have happened in another game.  Junior Legion games are seven innings but since three of their four games went  extra innings  P 58 played what amounted to five games in thirty two hours.  That will test any bodies pitching staff.

P 58 Advances To Round Two.

Post 58 got the job done tonight in  New Bern as they swept Post 24 for the second game in a row to win round one with a 11-4 victory.   Tyler King got the start for P58 and if the defense had of turned a double play New Bern may not have scored but any time you give a team extra outs if they are worth their salt they will hurt you and P 24 plated four runs to lead 4-2 after Four. 

P 58 has proven this entire year  that they will respond when pressured and tonight Matthew Berry homered in the fifth to tie the game and Jeremy Lucas,Tyler Wooten and Kyle Pratt all double to put P 58 ahead 7-4 and they never looked back.  Spenser Ramsey, Aaron Crumb and Jeremy Lucas shut down New Bern from the fifth inning on.

Coleman Pitt will now host Pitt County Monday night at 7PM as round two begins.  PC beat Ahoskie las night and Post 102 forfeited tonight's game setting up the round two match up with Pitt County Post 39.  Each team won at home when they played each other during the regular season.

P58 Junior Legion had a long day today as they opened the Area One Championships in Raleigh.  This morning at10AM they met Chatham County and lost in eight innings 3-2.  That forced the Junior team to play in the losers bracket at 5.30 again at Athens Drive High School.  Once again an extra inning game that took 10 innings but this time P 58 is on the W side of the ledger with a 12-9 victory over a team called Tri County from Oxford.

Winning tonight moves the Junior Legion over to Doak field at N C State where they will play at 3PM.  If they win that game they play again at 5.30 at the Doak.  The top two teams from this tournament qualify for the state so P 58 Juniors must win twice on Sunday to still be alive for Monday where if they win once they would be declared the winner of the losers bracket. 
There is no such tournament winner in this tournament because the winners bracket team that wins three straight automatically qualifies for the State Tournament and will not play on Monday

Legion Fails to Clinch First Round

A 9-0 win at home on Thursday night puts Post 58 in a great position to close out New Bern Friday night in round one of the Area One Legion play offs.  However the best team on the field this night was mother nature and a storm cell that passed just south of our area drenched the Kinston -New Bern area and tonight' game has been reset for 5PM Saturday afternoon at New Bern High School.  Rocky Mount wins they advance to round two while a loss will force a game three in Rocky Mount Sunday night.

The Post 58 Junior Legion team is set to compete starting Saturday in a Tournament in Raleigh that is a qualifier for the State Junior Legion State Tournament.  P 58 JR team starts play at 10:00AM at Athens Drive High School  they take on Chatham County.  Rocky Mount is the #2 seed in this tournament while Chatham is the #7.

The way this qualifer works is two teams of these eight make the state tournament so you only have to make it to the championship game.  An eight team tournament means that if you  win  three games you should be no worse than second.

Members of this team are Christian Arrington  from Southern Nash.  Arthur Carson from Roanoke Rapids.  Ryan Barham represents Nash Central.  Northern Nash's first player is Tyler Barrett.  Chandler Clontz hails from Rocky Mount High.  Tarboro has Will Dupree.  Linwood Jones who got in a couple of senior legion games in has a Rocky Mount connection.  Hunter Moore is from Northern.  Andy Morris who also got a couple of senior legion games under his belt is a rep of Rocky Mount.  Nash Central has Christian Perry.  Faith Christian only team member is Chase Roupp.  Another Bulldog is Kyle Taylor. Micah Varnell is the fourth Gryphon on the team.  Nick Vester  is the third Knight of Northern and Garrison Vick is the fourth player from Nash Central. 

Former Legion, Northern Nash  and active NC Wesleyan star Tyler Clark is the head coach with assistants Cameron Ramsey and Chad Womble.  Should P 58 win the first game the winners bracket games with be played at Doak Field at N C State and their second game would be at 3PM.  Should they lose that opening game they play  at 5.30 at Athens Drive.

HO-HUM

Tonight Coleman Pitt Post 58 opened the 2012 American Legion Playoffs and as conference champs of the Area One Northern Division hosted the #4 seed from New Bern Post 24.  New Bern's Legion team has won only twice all Legion season but they did have on the mound tonight the All State Pitcher in 4-A high School baseball Trevor Pence from New Bern High School.

Pence pitched well going six inning and gave up only two hits but despite a good outing left losing 4-0. P 58 took advantage of every base on ball and two errors played a big part in the four runs P 58 scored.  Pence was not the best pitcher on the field this night a Cam Webb took to the hill and Webb goes seven inning  he allows three hits and strikes out 10 New Bern Batters as Post 58 does just enough to come home with an opening playoff win 9-0 over Post 24.

Spenser Ramsey and Jeremy Trevathan preserved the shutout getting an inning of pitching  each as Post 58 wins theirs second straight home game in shutout fashion.  Their last home game of the year they beat Pitt County 10-0  Game two will be Friday night in New Bern and if P 58 wins they take the first series of the playoffs and await for the winner of the Pitt County-Ahoskie series that was rained out  tonight.  If New Bern Wins Friday at home  the series championship would be back in Rocky Mount  Saturday night at 7PM.  If Rocky Mount wins Friday round two starts Monday night at 7PM at Rocky Mount.

Kyle Pratt got two of the five P 58 hits on the night and lead the way with two rbi.  Also getting hits were Speirs Miller, Jay Aparicio and Jeremy Lucas. Matt Towernicky collected two of the three hits that New Bern had for the evening as Matt Bowman had the other.

There are never any guarantees in life but If P 58 plays well Friday they should end the series as they beat the best Pitcher New Bern had tonight and won comfortably.  There was a nice crowd on hand and hopefully if P58 continues for a couple of more weeks the crowds will get bigger and bigger.  This Legion teams is most of the All Star high school players from Nash County, Edgecombe, Halifax and even one from Wake County.  If you haven't seen them play they are playing a good brand of baseball and a good night's entertainment come on out Saturday if they play or Monday when they start Round two.

Shift In Have To Do's

There was a time in my life when I felt in order  to be a good sports announcer I needed to watch every game that was in season.  That was thirty years or more ago and I have over the years settled into watching only the teams I care about or players who I either know or have a personal interest in.

I use to watch NASCAR regularly and pulled for Ricky Rudd because I met him at  a Jaycee meeting one night when he was the speaker.  I am a Philip Rivers fan due to his State connection and he had classes with my son Brooks.  I watched parts of some of the NBA playoffs but the brand of basketball played by the NBA bores me and I don't think I watched a complete quarter without moving on to something else.

Last night was one of the few times in my life I didn't see one out recorded during the All Star game played in Kansas City.  I flipped the dial once and when it was 5-0 in the first inning I never went back again all night.  I don't have any personal connection with any player and if I was going to watch it would have been to watch Josh Hamilton, but already down  5-0 I didn't want to watch that badly.

It will be interesting now that Morgan has graduated from Rocky Mount High to see how much effort to go to games will be.  Now that Morgan is manager of the Campbell Volleyball team we are already looking at weekend trips to tournaments for the Fighting Camels.  I will be back to do the PA f or JV football but right now our focus is shifting 75 miles away.

If the Lord is willing and he lets the sun shine Coleman Pitt Post 58 will start the first round of the baseball playoffs at Home Thursday night at 7pm at Gryphon Stadium.  We have reach the time where this could be the last home game of the year if they were to get swept by a 2-11 team.  Regardless of how many  they have left or wind up playing for the rest of the playoffs the next game could always be the last.  So why not got out to the old ball park Thursday night as baseball is close to being over in the area until fall ball.