Top Two In Big East Tumble

There is no doubt that what happened the first time in the Big East Conference baseball race will not happen again.  Tuesday night at Northern unbeaten Hunt lost 3-2 in the bottom of the 7th on a wild pitch. That loss is the first of the conference season for Hunt as they now stand at 6-1.  The Knights climb up to 3-4 and at this point they have not been knocked out of winning first in the league.

This afternoon the Bulldogs buoyed by knowing they lead 3-0 in the third when the rains came at Rocky Mount last night and if they finish off the Gryphons today then they would be tied for the lead in the Big East.  Right off the bat the Bulldogs  score the two runners that were on base when the rains came and heading to the bottom of the 5th the lead  had grown the lead to 8-1.

The young Gryphons who have had a hard time coming up with big hits when they needed them found three runs in the fifth, four in the bottom of the seventh and a winning run in the ninth.  The wins drops Nash Central  to 5-2 in league while Rocky Mount now winners of three straight conference games are 3-4.  Fike beat Southern Nash on Tuesday making both of those teams 2-5 in conference play.

Spencer Ramsey lead off the ninth for the Gryphons with a double and after much maneuvering found himself on third  and scored on a wild pitch.  Ramsey had a double in the fifth that produced two runs, a single in the seventh driving in two more and to top it all off came in relief  to pitch the Gryphons last six and one third inning to be the winning pitcher.

The play of the game came in the top of the seventh after Jalen Hendricks had reached base on an error and was heading home for the leading run when Christian Perry lashed a deep line drive to the left center gap that Gryphon center fielder Jeremy Johnson went into an all out dive for a ball that was going to go to the wall without a catch and Johnson made the defensive play of the year for the Gryphons.  No time off for a great come back as Thursday night the Gryphons host Hunt who still remains in first.

Speaking of Jalen Hendricks  Rocky Mount native Tom Suiter was at the game doing his EXTRA EFFORT Award feature on Jalen Hendricks.  WRAL had to film today because they were scheduled to be at Nash Central's practice but last night's rain delay brought Suiter to watch about half the game as they filmed Hendricks.  It will be featured next Tuesday night at at 6.20 on WRAL-TV.

Lady Gryphon soccer clinched the Big East regular season today with a 2-1 victory over Hunt.  The Lady Gryphons still have two conference games and a  non-conference game left before the regular season ends next week.

Basketball news to report as Gryphon Terrell Hilliard has committed to play basketball at Wingate.  He will be a diamond in the rough for Wingate.

Rain Delay

The Big East Conference baseball game between Nash Central and Rocky Mount made it to the top of the third inning before one small cell of rain decided to stop an sit on Gryphon Stadium and force a  rain delay of the the game until 4.30pm Wednesday afternoon.  The rain dropped several times in pregame and even as the game started but in the third the rain had two nice showers and several periods of steady drizzle until the umpires called the Gryphons off the field.

During the third inning's rain Nash Central came up with two hits and a costly Gryphon error brought home three runs and when the game was stopped there were two outs and a runner on first for Nash Central.  The game will be picked up right where they left the field at 4.30 but there is an 80% chance of rain Wednesday afternoon and should they not get the game in Wednesday they would try Friday since both teams play another game Thursday.

The NFL is looking into the future of football and the future may be without kickoffs.  This past season the NFL moved the kickoffs to the 35 yard line hoping to get the kickers to kick the ball though the end zone and making teams start on the 20 yard line.  I doubt that the NFL would do anything this drastic within the next five years but before they eliminate the kickoffs they need to try to do something about helmets being used as spears and in the case of runners who lower their head using it as a battering ram.

I think they should try a helmet similar to Hockey  where the players have protection but no enough to want to lower their head when making a tackle.  I'm not even sure playing without a helmet at all would be better than letting the players lead with the helmet the way NFL football has gotten now.

Down The Stretch They Come

There is two weeks left in the Big East Baseball schedule and looking at the standings things sure are weird.  Hunt is out in front with a 5-0 record.  Nash Central follows now with a five and one record.  The next four teams all have fours losses so there is a jumble to say the least as we head toward tournament time.

Southern Nash, Northern Nash and Rocky Mount all stand at 2-4 and have played one more than than has Fike who stands at 1-4.  Last week the Nash County schools played a conference game while both Hunt and Fike chose to play in Easter Tournaments or play non conference games the last two weeks while the conference was on Easter break.

Tonight Fike and Hunt will catch up in games as they are playing.  Playing tonight also will require them to play two other conference games this week as they play other conference games Tuesday and Thursday like everyone else.

Tuesday night Hunt is at Northern Nash while Nash Central comes to Rocky Mount.  This leaves Fike playing Southern Nash.  Gryphon fans may remember last year that twice last season due to the fact they had to play three conference games twice and the third game each time last year was Hunt.  Just maybe since Thursday the Gryphons host Hunt and since Hunt doesn't seem to have any better pitching than any body else by Thursday the Gryphons just might have and advantage against them this year since they only play two games this week.

It will be interesting since Rocky Mount has played better of late and they have the top two teams this week  whether they can win one or both  we will see. If they lose both that is not the end of the world but they would have to win both next week against Fike and Southern Nash in order to make the playoffs.

Talking about odd but the over all records of everyone there are only two teams with winning records.  Hunt at the top is 11-4 while Fike at the bottom is 12-5.  No other team in the league has a winning record.  Nash Central is 8-9 while Southern Nash is 4-10. Northern Nash is 6-8 and Rocky Mount 6-11.  Any of those team with four loses wind up going unbeaten the rest of the way they know they will get third but I would not say yet that either, Rocky Mount, Southern Nash, Fike or Northern still can't finish second.  It adds up to the Big East is down all around in baseball this year.

Last Game Approaches

This is the last year of high school baseball at the old Municipal Stadium which is now Gryphon Stadium. May 19th has been set as the day the alumni will play the varsity team in what is being billed as the last high school game ever at Gryphon Stadium.

Several players have committed and those up to this point are Paul Jenkins, Jeremy Ward, David Ange, Chad Womble, Will Johnson,  Terrell Hudgins, Grant Johnson, Jim Leggett, Dillon Cockrell, and Braxton Hill.  We have not heard from you as of yet.  Even you old guys that can't run to first base any more need to be there to be recognized one last time.  This is a celebration of what Rocky Mount High School has done in baseball winning five state titles in it's school 's history.

Tonight on the All New Sports Show we are showing the game just recorded last Thursday the Rocky Mount at Northern Nash baseball game.  Air time is 8.00pm on WHIG-TV.

Tyler Joyner of Northern Nash and ECU lost his first college game of his career Saturday as he failed to get out of the fifth inning losing 5-2.  Record not too shabby at 5-1 for the Pirates.

One of the reasons that Hobbs Johnson only pitched into the fourth inning for Carolina  Wednesday night in his first career start is he was on a pitch count and coach Mike Fox wanted him to be available for this weekends series with Virginia for some  relief  work.  He got it Saturday coming in after the Carolina starter failed to go more than two innings.  Hobbs went 1.1 innings.  Today he came in in the seventh and pitched to one batter.

Benton Moss took the hill today for Carolina as they were trying to sweep Virginia.  Benton pitched six inning ans gave up two runs and left the game leading 5-2.  He struck out nine and walked only one.  Carolina won 5-3 giving Benton his third win with two losses.

Once again today Nash Central and UNC Pembroke pitcher Alex Pearce has a typical day at the office as he scattered 10 hits over seven innings but the important thing only two runs crossed the plate as Pembroke beat USC-Aiken 8-2.  Alex is now 7-3 on the season.