Northern Holds All The Cards

One week to go and Northern Nash was able to play two games in a week without losing a conference game.  There have not many weeks anybody else has been able to say that.  I have not seen any evidence that Hunt-Southern Nash got there game in last night so Hunt is faced with playing three conference games between now and by the end of Friday night.

Northern still has Fike to play a team they beat at Fike 7-3.  Nash Central and Rocky Mount must win their games Tuesday but both those teams with four losses need Fike to win to leave them any chance of somehow remaining alive to get into a combo of ties for first.

Northern at 6-2 but Fike 5-3  and right now Hunt with three losses at 4-3.  What both the Bulldogs and Gryphons need is Fike to beat Northern, Nash Central beat Hunt, Hunt beat Fike Friday and Rocky Mount beat the Knights Friday.  All of this is reasonable as long as everyone who plays Southern Nash beats them.  You know if all these scenarios happen then there is a real mess with a five way tie with the top five all being 6-4.

Northern can put a stop to the what if's if they beat Fike Tuesday.  That would only leave them to watch out for Hunt who could still tie at the top but remember they will have three games to play.  If Northern beats Fike then Rocky Mount and Nash Central are closer to getting playoff spots as long as they win.  That word win has been big trouble for everyone in this conference this year.

Jackson Willis of Nash Central won the Big East Tennis title beating Rocky Mount's Kevin Ramirez 7-6-6-2.

The Northern doubles team of Tremel Davis and Matt Outlaw beat the Fike doubles team of Thomas Smith and Reid Harrison 6-0-6-2.

Hunt High boys and girls swim teams won the NCHSAA Scholars-Athletes team award for having the highest GPA averages in the entire state.  The boys swim team had a GPA of  3.634 while the girls were a little higher with a 3.770.

The Pack has done it again.  They are shutout by the other teams best pitcher when the Pack's best pitcher Carlos Rodon gives up one run.  Carolina sneaks one out against Virginia Tech.  The Heels have won just enough to make ACC Tournament while the Pack has lost enough to be out.

Strangle Hold

This topsy turvey Big East has five teams who have a shot at the title. Going into tonight's game at Nash Central Northern Nash got the lead by virtue of Fike's loss on Wednesday and should they lose tonight we are back in a who wants it.  Tonight Northern Nash wants no part of a tie with anybody and used a seven run fifth inning and now have a strangle hold on first after a 9-4 victory over the Bulldogs.

The Knights started their ace Derrick Carter who gets the win as he pitches four plus innings but was rocked in the fourth by three straight hits but by this time the Knights had already scored seven in the top of the fifth.  Tyler Barrett came in and put out the fire and secured the victory and first place for the Knights.

Northern scored one in the second but The Bulldogs scored one in their half of the second.  The Knights took the lead for good on three straight hits in the fourth and the third was an RBI double by Alex Cooke.

Northern ended all suspense in the fifth plating seven runs on four hits but the Bulldog pitchers added to their troubles walking in two runs and the defense committed two errors.  Northern collected ten hits on the night with Chad Nelms, Jacob Green and Tyler Barrett getting two a piece.  Chad Haggerty, Derrick Carter,Nick Vester  and Alex Cooke all had a hit.

The Bulldogs collected eight hits and if the score had of been different Kyle Taylor with three hits just might had  of been the hero.  David Sutton, Tyler King, Zack Denton, Noah Strock and Patrick Horne reach base with hits

Northern heads home with two home games next week  at least a one game lead with a 6-2 record.  Fike at 5-3 gets their shot at Northern Tuesday night so there is still  plenty of hope for all five of the top teams in the Big East.

Up And Out Of The Coffin

Ten days into the Big East Conference season Rocky Mount stood 0-3 and tied for last with Southern Nash. Tonight Rocky Mount travels to Fike and the last time these two met it went extra innings before Fike applied one of those first  three losses.  Rocky Mount scores four in the first two innings and never trails as they Knock Fike out of a tie with Northern Nash winning at Fike  11-6

Tuesday the Gryphons knocked off Hunt who had beaten the Gryphons the first time around and tonight's win get the a Gryphons to 4-4 while it knocks Fike down to 5-3.  The Big East games Tuesday saw Fike beat Nash Central 10-3 and Northern got by Southern 5-3.  As of tonight Northern Nash is in first with a 5-2 record, Fike is 5-3, Hunt is 4-3, Nash  Central stands 4-3 Rocky Mount 4-4 and Southern is 0-7.

Friday night Nash Central travels to Northern and the Bulldogs will be in a must win situation as they trail Northern by one game with three to play and a loss to Northern  would put them down two with two to play.  Hunt plays Southern Friday and you would figure this is a must win for Hunt. The second time around the Firebirds are playing everyone much better than during the first cycle.

Rocky Mount having won four of their last five have played themselves right into the playoff picture. How close is Big East baseball this year? Five teams have won at least half of their games and only Southern has a losing record.

Dante Battle has announced that he has signed with Wallace State in Alabama and will play Junior College Basketball his first two seasons. This will leave him options to play D1 basketball after Juco.

Looked on the ECU Women's basketball web page today that J''Kyra Brown after averaging 5.8 points per game was named The Lady Pirates offensive player of the year.  Then this afternoon saw on J's twitter account that she has asked for and has been given her release from the basketball team at ECU.  Boy talk about a shocker.  Way back even as a sophomore at Rocky Mount J pretty much told all the recruiters that she was going to ECU no need to try to recruit her.

Saw on FaceBook earlier this week that Tia Hudgins has a leg problem  and will no longer play basketball for Queens University. Tia had a really nice freshman year having to learn the guard position after playing small forward at Rocky Mount.

Finally tonight looked up the Lander Division 2 baseball page and former Gryphon Thomas Berry leads the nation in walks on the season in D2 having walked 45 times in 46 games.  He is also hitting 331 on the year for the Bearcats.  You also might remember that Baseball Britt Johnson is the assistant  for Lander and they stand 40-6 on the season and are ranked 2nd in the nation.  Wouldn't 't be great if Lander makes it to the D2 World Series in Cary.

Ain't Dead Yet

Tonight Rocky Mount  High with one foot in the coffin for no playoff life knock off one of the four leaders tied at the top of Big East Baseball beating Hunt 4-3 in nine innings.

Cody Smith did all he could do but gets a no decision for his pitching effort.  Josh Carter who on the night made three errors in the field but gets the winning hit in the bottom of the ninth  gets the Gryphons a much needed win.  Blake Helms in relief gets the pitching win.

The Gryphons raised their conference record to 3-4 while Hunt who entered the night in a four way tie for first drops to 4-3 with three conference games to play.  Hunt has it's next conference game at home Friday hosting Southern Nash while the Gryphons have no celebration time they travel to Fike Wednesday night in another one foot in the coffin game.
That game begins at 6pm tonight.
Tonight I was in Raleigh and went to the Campbell/State  baseball game won  by Campbell 9-0.  Boy with all the expectations N C State had and even started 14-2 they are playing like a team going the wrong way on a one way street.

I ran into Derrick Whittenburg and we spoke to each other and I asked him if he remembered me.  If you are a dedicated reader of this blog at some point I have told the story about playing basketball in an ACC All Star  traveling show way back in 1986.

To remind you of the story while living in Ahoskie I was the play by play voice of Chowan College basketball during the time Nate McMillan play there and later he played two years at State.  McMillan's senior year someone gets Nate and the Senior all stars to come to Murfreesboro high school and I am playing for the news media.

This just happens to be the first Duke team in 86 that made it to the final four and their four seniors Jay Bilas, Johnny Dawkins, Mark Allarie and David Henderson are playing as well as McMillan and McMillan brings along a friend to play in the game Derrick Whittenburg who is three years removed from college basketball.

The news media clowns are warming up shooting lay ups like a regular team would do and each all star is announced one at a time and a full house of about 800 stands and cheers but the big roar is for home town hero Nate McMillan.

The last player announced was the surprise player who is the sixth player Derrick Whittenburg.  I am just shooting a layup and I am running back to the end of the line while Whit is being introduced.  All of a sudden I feel this arm go around my shoulder and it is Whittenburg and he says to me "Hey man how you doing"?  The whole time he is leading me down to the far end of the court where the all stars are warming up.

The entire 20 yard walk he is just talking away to me still with his arm around my shoulders.  Everybody in the place thinks I'm buddies with Whittenburg.  Finally when it's time to start warming up he leans over to me and says "I need to ask you a question.  What's a fat guy like you playing in this game"?  I told him I would show him why I was playing.

I did too scored three points in the game and we loss about 139-49.  We had'em for a while.

Wide Open Two Weeks

There is a tie at the top of Big East Baseball with two weeks and four games to go.  Just who is going to win the three playoff spots  is wide open for debate.  Looking at the first six games nobody seems to have an edge.  There is one thing for sure somebody who is just as good as everybody else will not make the playoffs because these next four  games  they will lose more than they win.

The four teams tied at the top are Hunt, Fike, Northern Nash and Nash Central.  So far through six conference games Hunt by far has the best offense.  They have scored 54 runs in six games which is just short of nine runs per game.  25 of those runs came in one game against Southern.  Against all others they are scoring just under six per game.

The other end of the offense machine is Northern Nash who has scored only sixteen runs in their  six conferences.  That is a measly two and a half runs per contest.  Rocky Mount who stands in fifth spot in the standings has scored twenty six runs.   That's almost two runs per game more than Northern has scored.  Both Fike and Nash Central have crossed the plate twenty nine times  which is still twenty five runs behind Hunt.  Poor old Southern has scored but three runs in six games.  It is easy to see why they are winless in six games.

The opposite end of the spectrum is the defense.  Northern Nash despite scoring but sixteen has given up only 13. That is a tad more than two per game given up but less than half run per game difference every game.  Hunt not only has scored the most runs but they are tied with Northern  giving up the least.  It begs the question how has Hunt lost twice in conference scoring the most and tied giving up the least.

Fike has given up twenty three runs while Nash Central has allowed thirty one. Fike has score one run a game more than they have given up while the Bulldogs have given up more than they have scored.

Rocky Mount who sits in fifth a full two games behind the top four has scored the fourth most in twenty six while they are third best in runs allowed in twenty two.  This does point to how close all five teams are and if Rocky Mount  won all of their remaining four games they could not only make the playoff but just might tie for the top.

One would think that of the four tied  for the lead the one that wins three of the final four will win the conference. There is a good chance two or three just might tie for the top  and then how are they going to figure seedings.  It is for sure if one team tied at the top wins all four of their remaining games they will win the conference title.  Just who is that going to be is wide open.

Staying The Same Is Backing Up

Last June after both Carolina and NC State both assumed that the road to return to Omaha was a fore gone conclusion they have found this year to be a different.  Both this weekend lost two out of three games.  Yes, Carolina lost to the top team in the country while State lost the the last place team in the league.  State was starting a 15 game home stand that would catapult them into the ACC Tournament.
Carolina at 10-11 in conference play is in the midst of their hardest stretch of games they will play all year.   They have their finger nails dug in hanging and clinging to a spot to make  ACC Tournament.

The Pack losing two of three puts them in a position where they really don't need to lose another conference the rest of the way.  They are 7-14 and are closer to 14th spot than 10th to get in the tournament.

We live every day with expectations of what we want to accomplish and we set goals to reach those expectations.  Who in the world would expect Duke and Wake to be vastly improved.  Who would expect Carolina and State to be such average hitting teams.  Neither is getting hits when they need them.  It's called getting a big hit and neither is getting them this year.

Every time two teams take the field one wins and the other loses.  When you add all the wins and losses up they come out to 50-50 wins and losses.  Duke and Wake have improve their win totals greatly.  State and Carolina have basically flip flopped records this year.

Virginia, Florida State, Are top five teams.  Maryland who was awful in the past is top 30 along with Miami.  Clemson and Georgia Tech are top forty.  There are six teams right there ahead of State and Carolina and that list doesn't include Duke and Wake.

Every year in baseball juniors get drafted  and both Carolina and State lost their share.  Each had valuable seniors that the newcomers have not replaced them  as they played a year ago.  Regardless of the sport you had better be improving or somebody is going to pass you who is when you are not.  Looks as though if the ACC gets a team or teams back in Omaha it will not be two from the Triangle.

It Is A Matter of Timing

Last season North Carolina won 38 out of their first 39 games. Once they lost their second  game of the year they had a struggle all the way to Omaha.  Heard today a stat on Virginia that they have given up more than three runs in any game only five times all year.   If they keep that up they will be Omaha bound.

Benton Moss has caught the Carlos Rodon disease.  Saturday Benton had his second longest outing of the season gave up only three hits and lost.  Carolina scores only once and loses three to one.  This drops the Tar Heels to 9-11 and they like NC State just might not make the ACC Tournament.  The rainout from the other night between the Pack and the Heels just might not be made up. There is possibility that if both do finish at least in the top ten in the standings they just might square off in either the 7/10 or 8/9 winner take all first round ACC tournament.  Wouldn't that be a high pressure affair.  I don't see either one at this time making the NCAA playoffs without making the top eight who will play in ACC tournament.

Today is Easter which is the highest day for church attendance every year.  I hope if you are a Christer who only attends church Christmas and Easter then today is your day to attend either a sunrise service or a regular services.

There is nothing in our lives that is guaranteed.  If you are not a believer I don't know why you would waste you time to even go to church twice a year.  I would suspect that going twice a year is because you are guilty  and know you should do better.

Today is a good day to start.  One thing that those who don't believe  have trouble with is they believe   That Jesus freaks are suppose to be sin free and they watch those who claim Jesus sinning and think  they they are only trying to fool them.  All of us who believe that Jesus Rose on this day sin every day.  Though we try not too we ask for forgiveness when we do sin.

If you trust that you will be here Christmas so you can go to church again then you will not have an everlasting life in Heaven as Jesus promised.  If you are planning to go to church Christmas then deep down in your soul you believe but some where you have lost in your heart that love of Jesus.  I invite you today to go to the alter  during the invitation today and make sure that Jesus has your heart.