North Carolina is known as the hot bed of college basketball but this weekend it has become the hotbed of college baseball. The ACC has been holding it's tournament in Durham at the DBAP and this weekend the NCAA has started the Division II College World Series in Cary. Mount Olive college is the host school and has won their opening in the tournament which will last all week.
The home front there is only one college player still playing from this spring as Hobbs Johnson and the North Carolina Tar Heels await whether they will host an NCAA Regional next Weekend. There is no reason why they should not. Hobbs appeared in six games so far this season for the Tar Heels and has pitched 3.2 innings. He has become this season a pitch to one batter especially lefty hitters. He did not give up a run this season.
The highly tauted Brian Goodwin at Miami Dade hit 382 on the season scoring 42 runs in 47 games and knocked in 37 rbi and most folks think he will go in the first round of the upcoming MLB draft in June.
Xavier Macklin hit 22 home runs this season which tied him for second in the nation in homers. How many homers was that this year with the softer aluminum bat. N C State as a team this year only hit 32. X man's batting average was 355 this season and now having finished his junior year he is eligible for the draft and he may go in the top ten rounds as well.
Ben Fish started 35 of his teams 45 games and hit a solid 327. He hit two homers and drive in 25 runs. Last summer Ben spent playing ball in Wilmington but this year he is helping out with Post 58 Legion Ball.
Tyler Clark finished up his second college season hitting 336 and started every game behind the plate. Tyler has joined Ben in helping out on the baseball field for Post 58 this summer.
Looking back to the 14 year old Babe RuthTeam that played in the World Championship game in Quincy Massachusetts in 2005 Brian Goodwin was the center fielder/pitcher. Xavier Macklin was the right fielder, Tyler Clark leftfielder/Catcher and Ben Fish catcher. If it were not for an extra inning semi final game in which Nash County had to pitch all the pitchers they had to win that game they may have won the world title. We will look at rest of this years college players tomorrow.
Post 58 game in the Baseball classic hosted by Durham Post 58 was postponed yesterday by rain. weather permitting they are playing tonight.
The Lady Bulldogs of Nash Central's greatest softball season is over. They were beaten in the fourth round of the state high school 3-A playoffs at D H Conley 11-2. Despite the disappointment of losing the Lady Dogs have done more than any other sports team in the brief history of Nash Central High school. A great job from coach Gary Smith's team.
Yesterday the Triangle area was deluged with rain which forced the ACC baseball tournament into a wild rescheduling of games. Once the field at the DBAP was drained of water the Virginia-Miami game which had started around noon finished after 10pm. Carolina and Wake started at 11.10 and after six innings Carolina's Patrick Johnson had a no hitter going and the bottom fell out with rain again. Finally at 2.00am the DBAP was emptied for the night and the finish of the Carolina Wake game is now scheduled after the State-Clemson game which starts as soon as the Florida State-Georgia tech game is finished this morning which started close to 8am. Have you got all that. By the way Carolina was ahead 5-0 when the rains stopped play.
Pennies For Change
Being a teacher is something my daughter Morgan has always wanted to be. Last week she was contacted by a teacher to start a fundraiser for teachers to help stop budget cuts and to keep teaching positions. This is a statement to Legislators saying don't cut teachers jobs. The fundraiser was to run from May 23-27th. With a goal of 1250 pennies yesterday they collected over 4,000 pennies. But Morgan is not done. She has made a new goal of 10,000 pennies. Legislators have estimated that over the next 3 years 10,000 teaching positions will be cut. If you are reading this and would like to be apart of Pennies for Change there is a jar in the front office of Rocky Mount High School and you can help by putting your pennies in that jar.
If you watched the weather out of Raleigh this afternoon you probably thought there would be no way to play baseball night as heavy rains were headed east. The farther east they came the less intense the clouds were and the bulk of the rain clouds went north of our area and tonight Coleman Pitt Post 58 took on Greenville Post 39 for the second time this week.
Jeremy Sloop got the call to pitch from Hank Jones and the third batter of the game Will Davis sent Post 39 to a 2-0 lead in the first inning on a two run homer. Starting for the first time this Legion season Matthew Berry came to the plate in the bottom of the first after Rocky Mount opening two batters walked. Looking as if Berry might join the walk parade he hit a3-1 pitch over the left field wall and 58 took the lead they would never give up.
Post 58 scored twice in the second on a rbi single by Khalil Macklin and a solo homer by Spires Miller. They would eventually push the lead to 10-2 before Post 39 finally score again off Sloop. Sloop would go 6 and 2/3 innings giving up six hits and striking out 7 and left the game leading 10-3. Steve Williams pitch into the 9th before he ran into trouble and Spires Miller finished off Post 39 by a 10-7 score.
Post 58 plays Saturday and Sunday in a Show case Classic at Durham at the old Durham Bulls ball park. They will not be home again until next Thursday. They evened their record at 2-2 after the first five days of Lefgon season.
Earlier this week I was on the way home from work and listening to 99.9 sport radio and when I got in the car an interview was in progress talking Nascar. The interviewer kept calling his interview Jeff and I had the feeling I recognized the voice. It took five minutes or so to realize that they were interviewing former Rocky Mount Telegram Sports reporter Jeff Gluck. Jeff left Rocky Mount to join the Nascar Scene Magazine three or four years ago and here he is now a Nascar expert. It was a good interview and he surely sounded like he knew what he was talking about. Good going Jeff.
Tonight Rocky Mount High School held their end of the year sports banquet. I was unable to attend due to Pat and I were at a meeting trying to get Morgan in a Work/School program in Nashville. Check the Gryphon Grapevine for all the sports winners.
Benton Moss was named the Pitcher of the Year in the Big East in 2011 as he headlines the four Gryphon seniors who all made all conference. The Berry Twins Matthew and Thomas the hitting machines joined Moss as well as Taylor Clontz.
Parker Lamm was voted Player of the Year from Hunt.
Nash Central has Dillon Moore,Mason Wallace, Khalil Macklin and Trellis Ashley on the all conference team.
Northern Nash gets three players on the team in Jeremy Lucas, Braxton Bowden and Madison Mayo.
Southern Nash has two reps in Luke Mercer and Chris Williams.
Nash Central girls softball team will try to become the first ever sports team from Nash Central to play in the Eastern Regional as they travel to D H Conley Friday night to take on the Vikings in the 4th round of 3-A softball playoffs. They are already the first to ever make it to the fourth round.
Friday Post 58 has a home game at Nash Central. They will play Post 39 from Greenville.Game time is 7.00pm.
Heard tonight that Elon and Western Carolina played a Southern Conference game that went 20 innings. Nash County's John Haggerty was the umpire behind the plate
Carolina lost today in the ACC baseball Tournament they blew a five run lead. They must win their last two games and hope Miami loses twice in order to get into the finals Sunday. N C State and Georgia Tech are trying to play all night. It is the longest game in ACC Tournament history. Tech steals home in the 15th to win it 6-5. If Tech beats Florida State Friday they play for the Title Sunday. If Florida State beats Tech then the Clemson-N C State winner Saturday plays for the title
If you have ever played in a Member/Guest Golf tournament there are times when they will let you buy a Mulligan. Those of you that don't know what a Mulligan is it is a shot that you can take over like a missed two foot putt or a shot that you might hit in the water. You show the other team your mulligan and you get to take one shot over.
Tonight Coleman Pitt Post 58 needed four Mulligans as they would like to have had the first, second, sixth and seventh innings back because the other five Post 58 shut out Durham Post 7 10-0. Those four innings they gave up 18. Four in the first , three in the second managed to tie the game up in the fifth at seven and then preceded to give up 11 runs in the sixth and seventh.
The game would have ended in a 18-7 lost except for a two out Tyler Wooten hit which scored two runs in the bottom of the seventh to cut the lead to less than ten runs. A single run in the ninth cut to 18-10 but this games went almost three hours and forty five minutes and Durham had 16 hits and Rocky Mount ten.
These early season games coaches are seeing who his players will eventually be and late next week when the conference games start I'm sure coach Hank Jones will settle into a regular lineup that he thinks will be his best in conference play.
Post 58 has lost both of their home games while winning on the road and stand at 1-2. They play at home Friday night against Greenville Post 39 the team they beat Tuesday. They play twice over the weekend in a showcase Tournament in Durham.
Nash Central's girls softball team will be heading to D H Conley on Friday night in round four of the State High School Softball playoffs. Conley beat Hunt 6-0 Tuesday and as a #1 seed in their conference the Coastal they are a higher seed than the Lady Bulldogs so the home game at Conley.
Wednesday turned out to be a fair day for any body that cheers for the Wolfpack. N C State beat Florida State in the opening round of the ACC Tournament in Durham. One of the Wolfpack nation Scotty won American Idol. Do you realize that the Wolfpack baseball team has won every day since Scotty tossed out the first pitch a couple of weeks ago against Florida State... Yes after his first pitch the game got rained out and a double header played on that Sunday and Florida State won the first game but the Wolfpack won the second game and has not lost since. It must be that Scotty power driving the Wolfpack.
The Lady Bulldogs of Nash Central have beaten South Central tonight 2 -0 in the third round of the State 3-A softball playoffs and have advanced to play either Hunt or D H Conley. Conley the #1 seed from the Coastal and Hunt the #1 from the Big East so it doesn't matter who they play it will be on the road Friday night. It is the second shutout for the Lady Bulldogs in the playoffs and they have only given up three runs in three playoff games.
The bubble finally burst for the Lady Firebirds. Tonight they traveled to SW Randolph the #1 seed from the Mid-Piedmont and get blistered 12-0. SW Randolph is 24-4 now while the Lady Firebirds finish 8-14 so congratulations to them on making it all the way to the third round.
Post 58 has a home game Wednesday night as they play Durham. Post 58 has won tonight at Greenville Post 39 by a 6-3 score. You know that the Legion team is very lucky that they have found someone like Hank Jones who loves Legion ball and he is a very good coach too.
Between Joe Bell who is the Athletic officer of Post 58 and Hank they have Legion baseball thriving in an area where there are so many other baseball options in the summer. Forty years ago if you were a high school player and wanted to play in the summer it was Legion or nothing. The last two season we have made it all the way to the State Tournament and yet we didn't have all of the best players available playing for one local team. If all our good players had of been on Legion the past two years we might have won two state titles. Their Victory tonight is their first on the season and they now stand at 1-1. All legion games this year are at Nash Central. First pitch is 7.00pm
If you have tried to get in touch with anyone at my house over the last hour you could forget it. Morgan has had my cell phone, Wife Pat's and her cell voting for Scotty. Pat was calling on our home phone as well as they both were voting on line. The tally at this point is Morgan has gotten through fifty times on our cell phones and to this point has voted 37 times on line. If Scotty doesn't win it will not be her fault.
I walked into the Post 58 dugout to get the lineups for PA tonight and I could not recognize whether I was in the right place or not. The 20 man roster that Hank Jones and his coaching staff have assembled has 14 first time players and only six returning players from last year and no returning college players. Sure looks like it going to be hard making it three straight years the the State tournament this year being played in Morehead City.
Jones has assembled a coaching staff of Brett "Baseball" Johnson who returns for his second season with Jones after spending his first year coaching college ball in South Carolina. Former State Champion coach Pat Smith is taking time out from the golf course to help this young squad learn baseball. Two former Post 58 greats Ben Fish (Rocky Mount and Campbell University) and Tyler Clark( Northern Nash and NC Wesleyan) are bench coaches and both can help these young hitters with their bats as both hit over 300 this season in college.
Two of the six returners were in the starting line up pitcher Jeremy Lucas from Northern Nash and Fuller Weatherly also of Northern. The Berry twins from Rocky Mount sitting out nursing leg injuries from last week high school playoffs and two Nash Central pitchers Trellis Ashley and Jeremy Sloop were waiting their turn to pitch. The other 14 Post 58 players are first time players and all are young enough they can play again next year.
Cary tonight's foe has faced Rocky Mount the last two years on the road to the state Tournament with Post 58 winning both years. They brought a team loaded with returning college players and high school players heading to play college ball next year. Surely seven innings Cary will put this one away with the ten run rule. It started just as if that was what was going to happen.
Jeremy Lucas's first pitch was a line drive single and batter #2 doubled off the wall and boy does this look like a long night or what. Lucas gave up another run to put Post 58 down 2-0 after the top of the first. The first six innings 58 managed two doubles by Spires Miller of Tarboro High and Khalil Macklin of Nash Central. Despite only two hits Jeremy Lucas shut down Cary Post 67 for the next five innings and when Hank Jones pull him after six inning he had kept 58 in the game losing 2-0.
The new pitcher for Post 58 Cam Webb from Tarboro walked two batters and gave up a single to load the bases with no outs and Hank Jones brought in Trellis Ashley from Nash Central. He was greeted by a double by Nick Addona which drove in all three base runners. Ashey settled down to get out of any further damage, Post 58 now trails 5-0.
Cary had pitched several pitchers a couple of inning a piece this was also their opening game of the season and in the bottom of the seventh they changed pitchers. The inning started harmlessly enough getting a ground out and then Post 58 put five on the board before they finished the seventh.
Tyler Wooten from Tarboro Singled, pitch hitting Matthew Berry(Rocky Mount) singled, hobbling to first and then removed from the game,Spires Miller walked to load the bases and Tarboro's Chase Johnson singled to bring the first run home. Jerrick Oxendine(Faith Christian School) walked to bring in another run and up strolls pitch hitter Thomas Berry(Rocky Mount). Both Berry brothers are hobbled by legs injuries had been resting their legs since they just finished the playoffs last Friday night. Thomas precedes to hit a line drive that is about four feet from being a grand slam home run but winds up with a double and Post 58 has tie it at 5.
The eighth inning Jeremy Sloop (Nash Central) takes to the mount for Post 58 and Nick Addona gets his fourth rbi of the night, his fourth in the 7th and 8th inning to give Post 67 a 6-5 lead which will be the final score.
A very young Post 58 takes Veteran Cary Post 67 to the wire tonight but lose 6-5. They head right back to the field Tuesday at Post 39 in Greenville. That game will be played at 7.00pm at Pitt CC in Winterville. Post 58 returns to Nash Central this year's home Wednesday at 7.00pm and then again Friday at 7.00.
Post 58 has a 23 game schedule and are in the same conference with Ahoskie, Edenton and Wilson. They will play all three of their conference foes three times a piece for nine conference games before the playoffs start after July Fourth. A surprisingly spunky Post 58 plays well before bowing to Cary Post 67 6-5.
I have done 1,200 broadcast on radio and TV of sporting events I have been a PA man for at least 652 events including 4 years North Carolina Wesleyan sports and 14 years for Gryphon baseball. Did post 58 Legion baseball a total of 11 years. Last five years Gryphon football and basketball but have done Gryphon Jv football as far back as 2003. Have done NASCAR TV shows and relay for life shows on WHIG TV. Have four children Stephanie, Brooks, Amy and Morgan. Wife Pat and I are working on our 33 years of marriage together
