Defense Lacking

Every now and then you go to a baseball game that has no flow.  The Bunn Rocky Mount baseball game had no flow what so ever.  The game took almost two and half hours and only went seven innings.

Between the two Rocky Mount walked three batters and hit two more while Bunn walked four and hit two others.  Between the two  teams Rocky Mount committed three errors and those three brought home four Wildcat Runs.  The Wildcats made two errors themselves and Rocky Mount's lone run scored off their error.  Plain  and simple this was hard game to watch.

The Wildcats got a double from David Morgan and scored on what should have been a groundout to end the inning but it went through the legs.  Bunn was gracious by returning the favor in the first.  Two outs Jamar Ellis scorched a ball down the line for a triple and scored on an error at short.

So we can start all over tied at one after one.Two outs with a runner on first with a walk Bunn had back to back singles and the second after centerfield miss played the ball with two  runs scoring.

Rocky Mount started the bottom of second with two walks wiped out on a double play.  Zack Keeter who started on the mound for the Gryphons gave up two hits in the third was relieved by David Harrison who gave up a wild pitch scoring one and another run scored on a squeeze play when the Gryphons had the runner on third dead to right but a wild throw plated another run.

Rocky Mount  had two runners on in the third and came up with a goose egg.  Twice more two runners were on or at least one runner on second but no cigar.  Davie Morgan knocked in Bunn's sixth runner in the fourth which was only the second earned run of the game.

Bunn out hit the Gryphons eight to five, Jamar  Ellis and Logan Pearce had two hits and Ben Seracki the  other.  Bunn had four base runners caught stealing.  Bunn beats Rocky Mount 6-1

The umpires were not the best for either teams as the ump on the bases failed to call an infield fly rule which the ball was caught. He called and out when the first baseman never touched the base and the ump behind the plate you never knew from pitch to pitch what he was going to call.  My guess is 250 pitches were thrown in this game with many batters with 3-2 counts.  This game simply is one to throw away the score book.

Next action for the Gryphons  is Monday as they host South Johnston.

Passing Thoughts

The Duke North Carolina basketball game is by far the greatest rivalry in all of sports.  During Saturday night's broadcast I enjoyed watching the cameras as they followed the teams  out onto the courts as a person who has done three state championship basketball  games in the Dean Dome (SouthWest Edgecombe Girls 2005), (Rocky Mount boys 2010-2012) and been in those very same hallways I always get excited when ever I see something on the news and I can say that I have been right there.

Yet, as hated as this rivalry is between these two schools and you can't find many people who pull for Carolina that will tell you they like Mike Krzyzewski or a Duke fan who enjoys Roy Williams.  Did anybody besides me see this the other night.  The camera was following Coach K in the tunnel leading to the court and as you arrive at the floor fans are perched in their seats  and any player or coaches from an opposing team here is where you are going to start hearing it from the fans.  As he entered the court just about every fan had their cells phones on camera and were taking his picture.  Everyone of those fans were wearing Carolina blue shirts.

Rivalries are great and despite how bad you hate the other team any fan that has any knowledge of the game recognizes greatness.  They also understand the rivalry is great because coaches like K and Williams have kept their teams near the top of the college basketball world.  When you stay on top then the world wants to watch.

This weekend's state basketball championships for the first time you can go on line and order tickets in advance.  I know there are people who enjoy going to the games just to watch the event.  There is only one advantage of ordering tickets early and that is you will not stand in line once you arrive at the event that you will be attending.  Advance tickets sold by the schools participating are $9 and at the door $10.  On line ordering are $10 plus processing fees so I would see no need to order in advance on line.

There is the old saying that what you hope happens is the team that knocked you out of the tournament wins it all.  The Lady Gryphons lost in round four to Northern Guilford and Northern Guilford is still alive and Northern Nash lost in the fourth round to Eastern Guilford and Eastern Guilford is still alive.  Both Rocky Mount and Northern just might be able to say it took the state champs to beat us.

Yesterday ended one of the more disappointing  basketball season in the history of N C State basketball.  One point they were 12-3 and ended up 15-17.  Had no major injuries after the 12-3 start but to me as a Pack fan the team quit.  I don't mind losing when the team gives effort but saw very little effort the more the losses came.  That tells me something about players hearts and coaching to let the players not giving effort stay on the court.  I would rather watch the guys on the end of the bench lose by 100 trying to win over what I have seen the whole month of February. 

Rocky Mount baseball is at home this afternoon hosting Bunn.  Rocky Mount's pitching continues to impress now having played 20 innings that have given up 2 runs and only one earned.  Those of you who like numbers that's is an ERA of  .045.  I suspect you might see David Harrison on the hill today for the Gryphons.  This past Saturday the Gryphons beat South Johnston 8-0 and you know that coach Pat Smith that had to be a joyous win beating the team which was your old stomping grounds  where you had won a state championship in baseball.

BIG EAST Basketball Players Of The Year

Now that officially basketball season is over for all of the Big East teams as long as there is any team from the conference still alive in the playoffs the awards are not announced until all teams have finished the season.

Montre' Cash from Nash Central is the boys player of the year and Henry Drake of Northern Nash is the coach of the year.  Cash scored at a 20.6 points per ball game.  Averaged 3.4 rebounds per contest, 4.6 assists and 2.66 steals per game.  Drake in his second year as the head basketball coach at Northern Nash led the Knights to the fourth round of the state playoffs and a 25-4 record the best record for the Knights this century.

The girls player of the year is Nash Central's Michaela Nelms and a tie between Rocky Mount's Pam Gainey and Nash Central's Terri Cash for coach of the year.  Nelms scored at a 17.6 clip per game.  Averaged 7.6 rebounds, 3.7 assists and 2.81 Steals per game.  Pam Gainey led the Gryphons to a 22-4 record and to the fourth round of the playoffs for the first time since 2012.  Terri Cash Bulldogs finished with a 18-9 record and made it to the third round of the playoffs after their top player was hurt in the first game of the year and did not return.

Big East Boys All Conference team:

Northern Nash               Nash Central               Fike                        
Darius Spragley             Montre' Cash              Samson Strickland
Raymond Bullock III     Elijah Cole                 Ty Lucas  
Undray Cherry               HM                             HM
HM                                 Dominick Dixon        Ricky Fuller
Devontae Wiggins

Rocky Mount.                 Hunt                           Southern Nash
Artavious Richardson     Ny'zhay Allen            Tyler Brown
HM                                  HM                             HM
Shyheim Battle                K J Jones                   Tavarus Brown

Big East Girls All Conference team;

Rocky Mount                Nash Central                 Fike                        
Keyanna Spivey           Michaela Nelms            Jada Lee                    
Michelle Gainey           Myia Spivey                  Aniya Thigpen          
Shelby Meeks               HM                                HM
HM                               Kayalin Mitchell.          Mason Blake
Ashley Hatfield

Hunt                                Northern Nash               Southern Nash
Kayla Kent                      Kristian Johnson.           Jessy Lucas
HM.                                 HM                                 HM      
Bryson Lee                      Kylar Wiggins               Aaliyah Newkirk

High school baseball scores from Monday Corinth Holders beat Rocky Mount 2-0.  Ben Seracki pitch the first five innings and Zack Keeter the sixth.

Roanoke Rapids 11 Northern Nash 5.  RR 16 hits to Northern's 5

Tarboro 5  Nash Central 3

Moving Up The Ladder

The Rocky Telegram ran two articles on Saturday and Sunday about "Baseball" Britt Johnson rise through the ranks of baseball with his team Applaichian  State having played this weekend in the baseball tournament at ECU.  Both articles were written by Ethan Joyce. I especially enjoyed reading the Sunday article about the sacrifice and commitment Britt made once the decision was made to go to college coaching.

I am a family friend and knew of the cold turkey jump to start from scratch doing what he loved college baseball.  Not many of us will leave a comfortable job and start doing something that pays nothing.  The life of coaching is said you were  hired to be fired.  A few short years Britt has risen to assistant  baseball coach and if they turn around the program at App State then it won't be long it will be his turn to be a head coach.  It only proves hard work pays off.

Trying to keep it in the family today a friend of Britt Johnson Brooks Doughtie has a similar story.  He is two years older than Britt and a graduate of Rocky Mount High and North Carolina State.  He has a degree in Coastal Management environmental Science and spent six years riding fishing boats protecting species on the endangered list.

He too wanted more and started coaching triathlon athletes in Raleigh.  He went to work in a bicycle shop to Have income plus bikes are one third of a Tri race.

Brooks had just returned Sunday from the US Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs Co  where he was invited in special training sessions for coaches through the US Olympic Committee.  Just so happen a Tri Athlon was held Saturday with runners all over the world were there.

Brooks has  hundreds of athletes that he coaches around the US.  2016 his coached runners in all age groups won 17 races and 15 times his runners got on the podium in 2nd or 3rd.  A proud moment one of his coached professional runners finished 3rd in a world event Saturday in Colorado Springs. It's a first podium for one of his professional athletes.

We are all hoping in the near future in the Doughtie family to hear if he will be named by the US Olympic Committee as a Tri coach for the October World Tri championship in Brussels Belgium.

Two locals Britt Johnson and Brooks Doughtie saw what they wanted to do and through hard work and sacrifice  are reaping the rewards of their commitment.

Another Shutout

We just discussed on our last  blog how pitching was going to be a big issue for all high school teams.  Teams that play more than two games a week will need a boat load of pitchers with the number of pitches per day being counted and depending on how many a pitcher throws today determines how many pitches that he can throw the rest of the week.

Case in point Rocky Mount Saturday traveled to South Johnston playing their fourth game this week.  Rocky Mount on the other hand played Monday and have at their disposal every pitcher that Pat Smith wants to use.  All this pitch count works into next week and Monday Rocky Mount travels to Corinth Holders so despite this being only their second game of the week the number of pitches today effects Monday.  You would figure Pat Smith needs to pitch some of his other throwers if for no other reason just to see what kind of pitching he has.

South Johnston lost Monday to 4A New Hanover 5-4.  Back on field Tuesday they beat 4A West Johnston 6-2.  They hosted 4A Clayton Friday afternoon and lost 10-9.  Today they give up 13 runs to Rocky Mount.  Do you see  a trend that pitching unless you are over run with throwers the more games you play each week the potential of running out of pitching will happen more than ever this year.

David Harrison gets the call to the mound as he has not thrown since Monday.  The Gryphons opened the scoring in the third after Zack Keeter singled. He moved to second on a sac bunt by Ben Saracki and scored on a single by Josh Piitman.

Two outs in the 6th but the Gryphons  plate three runs after two walks and a rbi single by Jamar Ellis. Zack Keeter  follows with a double. That plates two more runs.   David Harrison goes six inning giving up two hits and hit a batter and zero runs.  He throws 72 pitches.

Rocky Mount bats a round in the seventh scoring 9 times. David Harrison doubled home a run. Logan Pearce doubled home two.  Zack Keeter's third hit drove home another run. Chase Miller, Lane Butler and Josh Pittman walked with the bases loaded scoring three  more.  David Harrison rbi sac fly and a double by Isaiah  Stewart scored runs 12 and 13.  Ben Seracki gave up a double in the bottom of the 7th to give the Gryphons their second shutout or the year.

Final Rocky Mount 13 South Johnston 0.

David Harrison has opened the season pitching 9 innings  giving up two hits an a hit batter.  Freshman Ben Seracki has pitched five innings giving up three hits and a walk.  Hard to lose when the other side fails to score.

Pitching It's Every Thing In High School

We are a week into the high school baseball season and pitching is the talk of the baseball world.  Rocky Mount has played once and got a pitching shutout.  During that seven inning outing only  one walk and two hits were given up and yet it took 97 pitches 64 from Ben Seracki and 33 by David Harrison.

Nash Central opened their season against Smithfield Selma winning 7-4.  Bulldog veteran Zach Patterson threw 79 pitches.  Cameron Taylor tossed 9 and Trey Whitley tossed 35.  123 pitches total.  It is obvious from the early results that pitch counts are going to have a bigger say in who wins high school baseball than ever before.

Rocky Mount plays at South Johnston today at 1pm.  Monday they are at Corinth Holders.  Then Wednesday they are home against Bunn.  Three games in five days.  In a game where there wasn't any stress opening day they still threw almost 100 pitches. What's going to happen if they throw 125 pitches in all Three games next week.  Looks like they could need six pitchers  to get by.

The big question for Rocky Mount or any other team that plays three games in week where are they going to find six pitchers?

The first week of the baseball season has been a good one for Southern Nash.  Last night they bested East Wake 8-7 to start the season 3-0.  Earlier in the week they knocked off Princton12-2 and whipped SouthWest Edgecombe 11-0.

Nash Central has started 2-1 after falling to Rose Friday 9-2.  They won twice earlier in the week 7-4 over Smithfield Selma and 11-1 over Tarboro.

The team suffering the most this first week is Northern Nash.  Last night they suffered their third loss of the week to C B Aycock 7-1.  Earlier they fell to Roanoke Rapids  14-2 and Bunn 3-2. They have given up 24 runs in their first three games.

Rocky Mount starts their first stretch of three games in a week. By Wednesday we will have some idea of how much pitching  they have.

Winter Sports Season Is Over

Already this year the Big East has produced state champions in indoor track.  Rocky Mount football played in the state championship game in football.  The Big East was represented by Northern Nash boys in the semi finals of the east regionals in basketball. Even Rocky Mount girls played into the fourth round and if they had not made it Nash Central would have been there. So far this has been a rather good year in Big East sports.

It has been about two weeks now since Mark Gottfried was  released as the NC State basketball team. Anybody remember in the preseason when the Pack players were touting how much talent this team had.  Some where along the way the players have never realized that playing as a team produces success If there was and hope that Gottfried  getting cut loose would inspire the team to play better was sadly mistaken.

This modern world we live in people can give their opinions and the whole world knows about it in seconds.  If the next coach at NC State comes from the twitter wish list then it will be former Wolfpack point  guard Archie Miller.  He is a former player, graduate assistant,  former assistant coach and now is working on his fifth year winning 20 games in a season at Dayton.

Miller's wife in the past week with all the rumors swirling has sent out a tweet of a picture of her  doing the Wolfpack sign with her hand. The Wolfpack nation has gone twitter crazy since then.

The Wolfpack nation will truly be in depression If He fails to take or get the job.

Heading into next week's ACC tournament looks like Carolina if they stay healthy could be right back in the NCAA finals again.  They have been the most consistent team in the ACC all year.  All of the money grab that has gone on in order that each school can get 50 million dollars a year from TV over 5 million has surely changed the landscape of college sports.

No longer does ECU go to William and Mary for a Conference game but to Tulsa Oklahoma.  The eight team ACC use to be you could get in your car on a Saturday morning and ride to Washington to see a conference football game.  It use to be that the Tar Heel state was the center of the universe of the ACC.  15 teams has diluted the product.  It is that way now that in order to watch TV you pay to watch the news.  We are set up for the day that in order to watch any type of sporting event that will be a premium charge to see it. 

This has all happened in the name of progress.  I dream of the day of the old way.  It was so much more enjoyable.