Babe Ruth Playoffs

I asked for help to give me a source on how the 15U Nash County Babe Ruth Allstars were doing and one of my faithful readers Mike Pearce pulled a rabbit out of his hat for me and gave me a telephone number of fellow UPS worker Brian Marlowe who had a son playing.

I think we would have been better off if I hadn't found out.  Friday the 15U opened up play in 14 team Eastern State Tournament in Red Springs.  This tournament is broken down into two brackets with seven teams for a double elimination.  Then the two winners meet in a two out of three as North Carolina will send a Western and Eastern champ to the Southeast Regional in Richmond.

Nash County beat  Henderson-Vance 10-0 to open in the winners bracket.  Then Saturday they beat Pitt County 5-1 to be in a very good position to advance in the tournament.  Then I get involved and it goes down hill from there.  Nash County Sunday played Roanoke Rapids in a 1pm game which was delayed because of rain.  Nash County took a 3-0 lead into the seventh inning only to lose 4-3.

This put Nash County having to play Pitt County again  around 6pm  and once again Pitt County gives Nash County their second loss of the day 8-4 to knock the Nash County 15U Allstars out of the tournament.

If any one can help with the Babe Ruth 14U and 13U sure would like to report how they are doing.

Sunday afternoon Garner and Wayne County began their two out of three Area One  American a Legion playoff with Garner winning.  Both have already qualified for the state Legion tournament which starts in Lexington on Thursday.  The only thing they are playing for now is to be called Area one champs.

Review Of Baseball Prospects

 Been noticing Brian Goodwin hasn't batted in the last couple of weeks.  Right now Brian has stalled batted at 219 and when you go to the news wires in baseball you worry that he might have been sent back to 2AA but I guess this is good news in that regard.  Brian has been on the 7 day injured list which is better news than being sent back down.  Don't know the extent of his injury though.

Hobbs Johnson is stuck on 9 wins for Brevard of the Florida State League.  No fault of his own by chance as his ERA has dropped back to 2.80 so he is not giving up runs just not getting and run support from his teammates.

Xavier Macklin batting averaged has dipped to 207 for Gateway City in Illinois.  He is tied for the team lead in home runs with 7.  Today's Telegram has a nice story on X man's year in his comeback after missing almost two years with injuries.

There are two former Rocky Mount high baseball players who have sons trying to move up the ladder in baseball.  Whit Merrifield the son of Bill Merrifield  who now lives in Clemmons has played 35 games at AAA Omaha  for the Kansas City Royals and is hitting 364.  I suspect Whit will be a September call up for KC.

John Wooten who's dad is Sonny Wooten who lives in Wayne County  is now playing for Hagerstown in the Washington National organization.  John who played at ECU and Eastern Wayne has had a tough month as he was hit in the face by a pitch and has been in rehab but despite that since returning to Hagerstown has a season batting average of 303.

I think you need to look at Saturday' News and Observer in the sports section as the Observer did an article on Marvin Jarmon Mr Greenville Rose Rampant.  I think it is one of the best articles ever written about someone I know.  I think you will really enjoy it.

This week I have been on line as much as possible while the Rocky Mount Nationals run in the State tournament in a Greenville.  I took time to read the history of Greenville little league and stumbled upon a very interesting fact.  We all know of Ron Vincent the legendary baseball coach at Rose high who has won almost 850 high school games and six state titles.  Did you know even before he was the baseball coach he lead Greenville to one of their many state titles in little league.

Heart Break

The Rocky Mount National league 11/12 year old all stars meet defeat in heartbreaking fashion scoring two run in the top of the sixth inning to take a 6-4 lead over Southern Durham only to see Southern Durham hit a two run homer to tie in the bottom of the sixth inning and before the National's could get them out in the bottom of the sixth Southern Durham won on a wild pitch ending Rocky Mount's first dream of making it to Williamsport Pa and the Little league World Series.

Ever since word came down that Rocky Mount Parks and Recreation was leaving the Tarheels little league  there has been conversation that Rocky Mount was stepping up to big time little league  and as long as we played two equal all star teams Rocky Mount would never advance in the Williamsport little league out of the district.

Just to refresh your memory Rocky Mount plays two divisions at the 9/10 and 11/12 age groups. They are broken down into four teams in the American and four teams in the National.  This means that approximately 25 per cent of all players make the all star team.

There has been a major concern that the only way to advance in the little league tournaments was to have the first team as the pick of the litter players and the second team being the remaining players who would be team B.  Parks and Rec vetoed that idea and have continued to keep the all star teams the best from the American and National.

All teams in little league are finished as the 9/10 finished as district champs and went 1-2 in the state tournament  finishing 5th in the state.  The 11/12 all stars  finished second in the district  and by virtue that Greenville won the district and were automatically in the state tournament as the host team Rocky Mount got in as the second team from district four.  They also finished fifth going 1-2 in the
state tournament.

Here it is there is no way that Rocky Mount can compete in the big bad  Williamsport  little league and yet both of our little league age groups finished fifth in the state in their first efforts traveling into an unknown world.  A great job coaches and players from the 9/10 and the 11/12 year old teams proving that Rocky Mount Little League Baseball can play with any body.

I see on FaceBook that the Nash County 15U Babe Ruth team won today.  If there is anyone who can tell me how to find out more about them please let me know.

Bad Day On Elm Street

Coach Sam Toler's scouting report said he thought they were the best team in the tournament and you have to remember that Rocky Mount National is in the State Tournament after finishing second to North State the Greenville represetative who won the District tournament in Elizabeth City a couple of weeks ago. Today SW Forsyth beats Rocky Mount National 13-3 to throw our team into the losers bracket.

 They will play the winner of a losers bracket game tonight either Canton who lost to SW Forsyth Thursday or Southern Durham who lost to Madowell County 4-3 Thursday. That game will be played tonight at 6:30 in Grenville. The winner plays Rocky Mount at 12:30 Saturday afternoon.  Southern Durham beat Canton 12-2 to advance to play Rocky Mount.

 Thursday night Wayne County defeated Pitt County 9-4 to win the Eastern Division of area One American Legion Baseball. They will join Garner as the Area one Reps in the state American Legion Tournament starting next Thursday. Garner and Wayne County will play each other in a two out of three this weekend to come up with the area One Champion. As far as seedings in the upcoming state tournament this next series has no bearing so whether they play a one game winner take all or a two of three is the coaches agreement.

Rocky Mount National Wins

Today Rocky Mount Parks and Recreation took another step in climbing the ladder after joining Little League  International which is the Little League World Series which we all will watch in August from Williamsport Pa.  The Rocky Mount National league All Stars  11/12  year old team won their opening game in Greenville in state tournament.

They beat Boiling Springs 11-1 in four innings.  Coach Sam Toler used four pitchers pitching one inning each to secure the win.  Woodall Rose pitched the first then Sam Mills in the second and in the third Charlie Rooks gave up the only run to cross the plate against Rocky Mount National.  The final inning the fourth Jonathan Weeks took to the hill and got Boiling Springs out and a ten run lead brought out the mercy rule.

The big sticks for Rocky Mount National were Colin Legaj who hit a grand slam home run driving in four runs and Woodall Rose would hit a two run shot.  No time to celebrate as the Nationals will be in action at 10am Friday as they play SW Forsyth a 10-3 winner over Myers Park Trinity.

The victory today means in Rocky Mount Parks and Recreation both the 9/10 and 11/12 year old teams have one victory in each state tournament  since Rocky Mount departed the Tar Heel State Championship.  Should the Rocky Mount Nationals pull off the state title then there is a southeast regional to go to where the state championship in The Tar Heel was as far as you can go.

A early scouting report from coach Sam Toler who watched SW Forsyth win their game at 10 this morning is SW is a physically a big team and he considers them the team to beat in this tournament.  If you have the ability you can watch the game live by going to gllbaseball.com which is the front page of Greenville Parks and Rec and scroll down until you see live streaming and click and the game is rather good quality considering this is not a national  network broadcast.

Keep going Rocky Mount National!!!!!!!!!!!

11/12 Rocky Mount National Front and Center

Thursday at 12:30 the Rocky Mount National Little League Allstars hit the Elm Street Diamond in Greenville in Rocky Mount's first ever attempt to win in the Little League International state championship.  Sam Toler's team can be seen if you have a computer as the State Tournament is being streamed live at www.ustream.tv/broadcaster page/15274139.

Tonight Garner and Raleigh American Legion teams returned to Rocky Mount and Legion Field in the Western Division Area One finals.  Garner wins tonight and three straight games 9-5 over Raleigh Post 1.  Garner wins the automatic birth in the state  American Legion Tournament  in Lexington that starts next weekend.  There is still one more series to play for Garner as they are suppose to play the Eastern Division winner in a two of three this weekend.

Right now Wayne County leads that series 2-1 but tonight's game was rained out in Greenville.  Garner coach Chris Cooke announce that he wanted to play a one game winner take all for the Eastern State Championship crown.  This year both the east and west winners from Area One are invited so Cooke sees no sense in wearing out pitchers against a team who is in the state title too.

Tonight very well be my last game doing the PA for American Legion baseball.  What I envisioned my life during retirement when I was 30 is no where near how I thought life would be as I near the retirement age.  I expected at 30 years old I would play golf everyday and life would be wonderful?  Now I have no desire to want to exert the energy  needed to bend down and take a ball out of a golf hole.

When you have a daughter who still has two years of college I now see four more years of full time work in order to pay what ever will be owed to college once Morgan Graduates.  I know if you are a regular you have seen me say this in the past.  Even tonight after doing PA for two teams that I have no rooting interest in either team it will be around 1am before  my motor calms down enough to be able to sleep. I will be hyper well past midnight and when you get up every morning at 5am I simply can't recover fast enough.  The Legion playoffs started on July 3rd and tonight was the tenth game during that stretch.

If I continue in the next four years working a full time job I simply can't continue with so many games.
I have already told Mike Gainey that JV football this season we as a family following our daughter's volleyball life that we have too many Thursday night conflicts with football.    

I will continue to do TV when needed.  My hope was once I retired I would do all kinds of PA  work but a full time job stands in the way of me being able to last that long.  I can tell you one worry I have.  You hear all kind of news in press boxes  which I use on this blog all the time.  If I don' t continue to get information for this blog you may lose interest in reading this and this will be something I will need to monitor.

Wilson/Rocky Mount Square Off Again

The opening day of the State 9/10 year old Midget State Tournament  over the weekend saw Rocky Mount and Wilson ride all the way to Morganton to play in the first day against each other.  Rocky Mount won 4-3. Wilson survived two loser bracket games while Rocky Mount lost the next day in the winners bracket game. Then Monday advanced for another day and who do each other play but each other again.  Tonight Wilson gets revenge and is still alive in the state tournament while a Rocky Mount's 9/10 year olds will head home losing to Wilson 11-3.

The Rocky Mount Midgets playing for the first time under the banner of the Williamsport Little League Won their district tournament in Greenville and went 2-2 in the state tournament.  I would like to thank  Thomas Smith one of the assistant coaches who kept me informed of Rocky Mount American's  progress this week.

Next week is the NC Coaches Association Clinic Week.  There are always those coaches especially those who just graduated college will be on the hunt to be at the clinic looking jobs.  The clinics are to go over rules  changes and to listen to other coaches tell others how they do their coaching so others can learn.  The side show of the clinic is the All star games that will be played Monday-Tuesday and Wednesday.

Southern Nash football coach Brian Foster is the head coach of the East football All Stars and that game is Wednesday.  The game will be played at Grimsley High in Greensboro.  Tuesday is both the boys and girls soccer games with Beddingfield girls soccer coach Glenn Griffin  heading up the east team and Tarboro boys coach Matt Edwards in charge of the east boys.  The soccer games will be played at UNC Greensboro.

Monday belongs to basketball and Rocky Mount will have two players taking part who were the Big East players of the year.  Northern Nash's  Alexus Hill will be playing in the girls game at 6:30 in the Greensboro Coliseum and Rocky Mount's Dante a Battle will take the court  in the boys game.  Both are in summer school at their new colleges for Hill Gardner Webb and a Battle Wallace State.

Game three of the Western Division of Area One American Legion finals was rained out tonight in Raleigh at North Raleigh Christian Academy and game three will now be played  Legion Field in Rocky Mount on Wednesday.  Garner holds a two games to none lead over Raleigh.

Both Garner and Raleigh have had to play their entire season at others home field.  After last night's win over Raleigh Garner is 23-5 on the season.  That is outstanding considering  they don't know from one game to the next where they will play.

The Eastern Finals between Pitt County and Wayne County got rain Tuesday night in the top of the Seventh but Wayne County  had a 6-1 lead which was enough to win game three.  Wayne County leads the series 2-1.