The Hits Keep On Coming

Back in my Disc-Jockey days one of the phrases that our station use to use was the hits keep on coming, Well Coleman Pitt Post 58 has taken me back in time as they just keep on getting hits.

Tonight twenty three as Post 58 takes down Edenton Post 40 17-5.

Unlike last night Dillon Cockrell was in control on the mound after the first batter who lead off with a home run, Cockrell pitched six strong innings and when he left the game had allowed only three hits and was in the lead 17-1.

Ray Valesquez pitch the seventh and was roughed up for four runs on four hits and Post 58 defense was very poor tonight in committing at least six errors but still won the game in seven innings.

I would like to thank Don Johnson being my telephone source once again tonight keeping me informed of the score.

The first two games of this series Edenton pitching took thirteen inning before they figured out how to keep Post 58 from scoring runs in every inning. Last night Post 58 batted six times and score in every inning. Tonight Coleman Pitt score in every inning but the seventh.

However for the first time this year there is an injury to report. Last night Alex Pearce walked twice and was hit twice. Tonight he once again walked and then in the third was hit on his left wrist and had to be removed from the game. Looks like x-rays may be needed Wednesday morning. Alex is scheduled to pitch Wednesday night in what now can be the series clincher for Post 58. If Alex can't go I suspect Nick Hahula would get the call but remember this is the left wrist not Alex's pitching wrist. We will see.

Injury update: Have received word that Alex's wrist is not broken only bruised after a doctor visit to Greg Nelson this morning.

I found out late last night that the state playoffs are getting bigger. I said on the PA last night that the winner of our series with Edenton would meet the winner of Wilson-Kinston and the winner of that series would go to the state playoffs in Greenville July 25th.

I understand now that due to one team already being from the east that being Post 39 the host of the state playoffs that only one other east team can make it to the state which means we have another series to play the week of July 18th if we survive next week. That would be against the Raleigh area winner which right now the best team seems to be Durham Post 7.

Post 58 can sweep their second playoff series in a row Wednesday night at home at Northern Nash. First pitch is set four 7.00pm.

Come see this team hit the baseball. They are very entertaining.

Bombs Away

I ask for a five game series and got that from Edenton and Wayne County as Edenton came to Northern Nash tonight after winning game five in their opening round series against Wayne County on Saturday Not having their top pitchers to use tonight Edenton Post 40 paid dearly in being clobbered by Coleman Pitt Post 58 25-6

Post 58 scored in every inning including seven in the first on a three run homer by Xavier Macklin, A solo homer by Ben Fish an another three run homer by Tyler Clark and that was just the first inning

The bottom of the sixth Coleman Pitt made sure this game would not go more than seven innings with Dillon Cockrell getting a double driving in two runs. Tyler Clark not satisfied with only on homer hit his second of the night
driving in two more runs. Collins Cuthrell put the capper on this game hitting a two run homer. Post 58 plated ten runs in the sixth.

Brandon Denton pitched four innings but tonight was not his best night giving up five run on five hits and he walked four batters. When Denton left the game Post 58 was ahead 12-5. Bill Clark pitched two inning giving up a homer and Nick Hahula pitch the seventh. Tonight the pitching gave up six runs on seven hits and walked five batters. Not there best effort but who noticed when you win by 19.

Every batting starter got a hit lead by Tyler Clark's three for five two home runs and five runs batted in.

Xavier Mackin was four for five with a homer and three RBI's.

Ben Fish two for three with a homer and three RBI's.

Grant Johnson was one for four but had two ribbies.

Collins Cuthrell had two hits in four trips with a homer and two runs knocked in.

T J Taylor had a hit in three trips but walked three times.

Alex Pearce had a single but reach four times on walks and being hit by the pitcher.

Dillon Cockrell doubled off the wall driving in two runs.

Post 58 had twenty three rbi's with the help of eleven base and balls and four Edenton errors. There were base runner every where you looked all night tonight.

Game two in the series will be Tuesday night at 7.00pm in Edenton. Game three for sure will be Wednesday night back at Northern Nash.

Also last Night Wilson Post 13 held of Kinston Post 11 6-5 and Wils0n take s a 1-0 lead in games in that three out of five series.

It is finally official that Dickie Schock is the new head football coach at Rocky Mount High. There is an old saying that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree as Schock is a former Starmount player under B W Holt and actually came with Holt to Rocky Mount the first year Holt was here before moving to head coaching.

Schock he was hired last week but ask for it not to get out here in Rocky Mount until he had a chance to tell his players and administration in Orange High. A very classy move.

I Almost Got My Wish

Friday I stated that what Post 58 needed was for Wayne County and Edenton series to go five games and game five go twenty innings in order to wear out who ever wins the series pitching.

I got a five game series. All Edenton Post 40 needed in the ninth inning Friday night was one strike which would have meant the ball game and a three games to one upset of Wayne County. Wayne County got a two out two strike hit to tie the game and sent it to extra inning before Wayne County won 6-3 in Eleven innings.

Force to play the deciding game on the fourth of July was not fun for either team as you know that they had rather be any where other than playing ball on the 4th.
Edenton Post 40 pulls off the upset beating at Wayne County 7-4 to win the series in five games.

Edenton will now play Coleman Pitt Post 58 Monday night at 7.00pm at Northern Nash as the semi-finals of the area one east bracket is down to four team with one of them going to the state American Legion State Championships in Greenville starting July 25th.

Wilson plays Kinston and Edenton Plays Nash County. The two winner meet next week and the winner of that series goes to the state American Legion State Championships.

I was in Edenton all day, rather, Rocky Hock on the Chowan River at my sister in laws house. The family cooked a pig, road jet skis, all day. Heading home from a full day at the river we stopped in Edenton to see the fireworks which was shot off over Edenton Bay. Much better that Rocky Mount's on Friday night.

Edenton has a college team that plays in the summer Coastal league called the Steamers and they play their home games at the Holmes High School baseball field where the Legion plays. I don't know whether we are going to have any problems with scheduling the field since there will be a possible game there Tuesday and Thursday.

Edenton's baseball stadium was built in 1938 and has wooden seats. It is a neat place to watch a baseball game in case you are planning to follow Post 40 this week.

Remembering The Past

While doing the PA for Legion one night this week Joe Bell the Athletic Officer for Post 58 and I were sitting in the press box and he ask me if I knew Jimmy Hunter back when he Play for Post 102.

That started about a three inning barrage of Jimmy Hunter stories between announcing batters.

I became the Batboy for Post 102 back in 1961. My father a member of Post 102 drove some of the players to the first game of the season. It happened to be in Benson. While we were waiting for the players to dress Coach Al Vaughn asked me a skinny eight year old if I wanted to drag the bats. I had no idea what drag the bats meant and he replied “be the batboy”. That started a five year obsession for me because as an eight year old I thought I was a major leaguer being the batboy for Post 102.

Way back then if you played baseball in the Albemarle area and wanted to play baseball in the summer Ahoskie Post 102 was your only choice. So players came from Plymouth, Williamston, Edenton, Elizabeth City as well as Bertie and Gates County. As far back as I can remember Ahoskie was only average in baseball so there was hardly ever more than a player or two on the team who went to school in Ahoskie. Ahoskie was then and still now a football town.

Al Vaughn always had a try out in mid May which would consist of a Friday night practice and a Saturday morning practice and then he would pick the team. There might be thirty players there trying to make the team.

In 1962 there were four players who showed up from Perquimans High school. Gene Nixon, Freddie and Francis Coombs and Jimmy Hunter. My family took Freddie and Francis and they spent that Friday night at our house so they would not have to sleep on cots in the gym because of the early Morning Saturday practice. The 1962 Legion team lead by those four players lead Ahoskie to one of their best years ever.

1963 rolled around and Perquimans won the state 2-A baseball title on a Friday night. The Legion season had started the weekend before and Ahoskie was 0-4. The following night one day after winning the state baseball title the Perquimans foursome joined the Legion team and Ahoskie proceeded to win 16 games in a row and beat Rocky Mount the last night of the season to win the league and into the playoffs. To my knowledge that is the only regular season title Post 102 has ever won.

Post 102 made it all the way to the state finals. In those days we played Siler City and lost four games to two. There was no double elimination tournament like there is now.

During the Christmas break of 1963 Jimmy and his brother Pete (Pete was pitching for ECU at the time)were hunting and as they tried to cross a fence one of their shotguns fell and went off and nearly blew Jimmy’s right foot off. He was operated on at Norfolk General Hospital but he had so many shotgun pellets in his foot they could not get them all. He lost his right big toe in the accident.

After having lead Post 102 to the state championship series in 63 Jimmy Hunter was God like to people in Ahoskie. They will tell you today he is from Ahoskie.

Perquimans was in the process of heading back to the state high school championships in 1964 when they came to Ahoskie for a conference high school game. Now remember Jimmy just almost lost his foot in December and here it is April and he is on the mound pitching with no top to his right shoe they had bandages on it. That day Jimmy Hunter pitched a no hitter against Ahoskie before the largest crowd that I ever saw at any high school game there ever. After the last out the Ahoskie crowd gave him a standing ovation. Remember now we think he is one of us.

In May after the state championship game in Greensboro Jimmy Hunter signed a pro baseball contract with the Kansas City A’s. He left the very next day going to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester Minnesota where he under went another operation to remove more pellets from his foot. They got what they could but could not get all of them.

The next day the Coombs Brothers and Gene Nixon were back in Ahoskie playing Legion. The Coombs brother were headed to N C State where they would play a part in the only Wolfpack team ever to play in the college world series

Jimmy went to the Mayo Clinic he did not return for Legion ball in 64. So the last time that Jimmy ever pitched in Ahoskie was the high school game in which he threw a no hitter. His foot wrapped in bandages a missing big toe and about fifty pellets in his foot. Boy was that a game.

Jimmy Hunter was elected to the Baseball Hall Of Fame in 1986. Hunter won 224 games plus he was 9-5 in divisional playoff games and 5-3 in the World Series being on the winning team five times. Won twenty or more games five years in a row. Had 42 shutouts in 500 career starts. He pitched a perfect game in 1968. Had a career ERA of 3.29. Here is a real stat for you . In nine divisional playoff series and six World Series his ERA was 3.26. Talk about consistant. Won the Cy Young award in 1974

Just amagine what he could have done if he had a good right foot!

Sitting And Waiting

The good news any time you sweep a series is your pitching staff gets to rest. Hitters probably need to try to stay in a groove but the most important to me is keeping pitchers rested.

Last night Post 58 swept by Post 39 three games to none. They won the series by out scoring 39 thirty one runs to five. The offense wasn't quite as good as during the regular season but ten runs a game ought to win every time out.

The impressive thing to me is that the the pitchers gave up only five. One reason is base on balls. Our pitchers are not walking that many batters there by keeping base runners off the base. It's hard to score without base runners.

Post 58 now a waits the winner of the #2 seed match up of Wayne County and the @3 seed Edenton. Wayne County is made up of most of the Eastern Wayne players that knocked off Northern Nash in the high school playoffs. Last night Edenton beat Wayne County to take a two games to one lead in that series. Tonight Edenton could pull the upset if they win in Edenton tonight. If need be a game five would be Saturday night in Wayne County. The winner of that series is at Northern Nash Monday to take on Post 58.

Hope it goes back to to Wayne County Saturday and the game goes twenty innings. Use up all the pitching before Monday.

In the other part of the bracket Wilson County swept past New bern three games to none and play Kinston who swept Ahoskie three games to none. They begin their series Monday night in Kinston.

My family will be heading to the River (Chowan ) near Edenton Saturday. I hope everyone has a safe fourth of July.

Post 58 Advances

I like this Post 58 team a lot. They have a great hitting team. I have told you in the past that pitching was the weak link for this team. Looking at the roster there is not a #1 starting pitcher from any of our local high schools on the roster. If you consider that an American Legion team should full of all stars from our local area we have all the all star hitters except for Brian Goodwin.

This week in the opening round of the State legion playoffs our pitching staff has tried to make me look like I don't have any idea what I'm talking about. Monday night Brandon Denton pitch six strong innings and Bill Clark pitch the last three in getting Post 58 off to a 1-0 in games beating Post 39 from Pitt County 9-3..

Tuesday Dillon Cockrell pitch six inning of three hit ball and Mike Williams finished off Post 39 in seven innings 10-0. Tonight Alex Pearce goes the distance in this case seven inning allowing four hits and striking out ten Post 39 batters as Coleman Pitt Post 58 nails Pitt County 12-2. Post 39 runs score on a home run other wise Pearce was in control leading Nash County to round two of the state playoffs.

Post 58 scored in five of the six innings they batted and in three of those inning put up crooked numbers on the board scoring Two in the first,a Single run in the second, went three up and three down in the third, a lone run in the fourth, four scored in the fifth and added three in the sixth enough to give them a ten run lead.

Pearce who is one of the few players in a hitting slump came alive tonight hitting a homer and added an RBI single. Wesley Joyner went three for three. T J Taylor had two hits, Xavier Macklin two,Grant Johnson two. Gabe Brown had a single.

All toll seven different players had at least one RBI. Macklin,Fish,and Mike Williams had one. Johnson,Joyner, Brown had two each and Pearce had three.

Coleman Pitt awaits the winner of the Wayne County Post 11 and Edenton Post 40 winner. Going into tonight they were tied a game a piece but in the seventh inning Edenton was winning game three 15-4

Post 58 will be the higher seeded team regardless of who they play and will begin round two Monday night at Northern Nash. Junior Legion regular season ends Friday so game time Monday should be 7.00pm.

Coleman Pitt is now 11-2. they have scored double digits in ten of their thirteen games. If you like high scoring games they have scored 171 runs in thirteen games. For you English Majors out there that is just over thirteen runs per game.

Post 58 Blows by Post 39

Later this month Pitt County Post 39 will be hosting the State American Legion Championship on the campus of ECU. Since they are the host for the event they automatically qualify for the event.

Post 39 much like Post 58 has several players playing for other teams and this season they could only muster a fourth place seeding in the Southern Division. Last night Post 58 took game one 10-3 and tonight game two was played in Winterville.

Last night a Junior legion game caused the senior legion game not to start until until 8.19pm and tonight has turned out to be rain that has slowed play. Regardless of any delays Post 58 has done damage again tonight taking out Post 39 10-0 in seven innings.

Coach Matt Bryan chose to pitch Dillon Cockrell and Cockrell pitched superbly going six inning and allowing a first inning single and a fourth inning one bagger. Mike Williams pitch the seventh three up and three down and Post 58 can clinch their opening round series with a victory Thursday night at Northern Nash.

Since I did not make the trip Don Johnson told me by phone that Post 58 got one in the first and four in the second to take control of the game. Post 58 collected 13 hits in sending Pitt county down on mercy rule.

If Post 58 can take Pitt County again tomorrow night then the host team for the state championship will be there only because they are the host not becaused they earned their way there.

Also tonight Wilson Post 13 beat New Bern 4-3 to take a 2-0 lead in their series. Last night Wayne County beat Edenton 14-1. Tonight playing in Edenton Post 40 wins game two 8-5 to even that series at one game each.. Kinston outscored Ahoskie 20-12 for a two games to none lead.

Post 58 once again has posted double digits scoring against another team and with the win tonight is now 10-2 on the season.

Post 58 tries to clinch their opening round series Thursday night at Northern Nash. There will be a Junior legion game again before us so Senior Legion will not start until 8.00pm.

Come on out and enjoy our kids . They are very entertaining!