Defending Champs Ousted

Ethan Cockren Stroked three hits in the game to out hit Rocky Mount who could only get two. Then he turns in a complete game pitching victory over the Gryphons who's hopes of back to back State titles dies.

Tonight would be a night of opportunity of not to be as Three innings the Gryphons left runners on third base including the bottom of the seventh with the bases loaded and only one out the Falcon's turn a 4-6-3 double play to end the game.

Brian Goodwin led off the bottom of the first with a hit and the Gryphons went hitless until the seventh inning when Hobbs Johnson got number two.

Benton Moss loses his first varsity game in taking the loss for the Gryphons. He will finish the season 7-1.

After hitting the leadoff batter in the fourth inning and down 4-1 Pat Smith brought in Hobbs Johnson who held South Central scoreless the rest of the way.

Gryphons finish the season 20-3 while South Central plays in Round three against Eastern Wayne.

The news is better for Northern Nash as Tyler Joyner pitches a five hitter striking out ten batters as Northen Nash the #2 seed in the NEW-6 knocks off the #1 seed home team Southern Alamance 4-1

Northern Nash is still alive and a waits the winner of the Triton Western Guilford game Friday. Western Guilford is the #1 seed and Triton is a #2 seed. If Western wins then Northern travels to Them but if Triton wins and both teams are #2 seeds the NEW-6 has the seeding priority and they would get a home game against Triton.

Right Where They Want Them

The Carolina Hurricanes have lost the opening game of the Eastern Conference finals in Pittsburgh tonight 3-2. This is the third straight series in which the Canes have lost the opening game and by doing so have the Penguins right where they want them down one game to none.

I am a Johnny come lately to hockey since I never even watch hockey until cable TV brought Wayne Gretsky and the Edmonton Oilers to my home in the mid 80's. So I don't under stand certain rules and I didn't see why Carolina got an interference penalty when a defensive player for Pittsburgh bowls over the Pittsburgh goalie and Carolina score practically with and empty net. Not only was the goal taken away but Carolina got a penalty on the deal.

Regardless of whether you are disappointed with the score or not this was an up and down hockey game when both team had chances to score ten goals a piece.

Game two is not until Thursday night due to the fact that Bruce Springsteen has concerts in the Igloo both Tuesday and Wednesday night. All games for the remainder of this series are on the Versus Network which is hard to find.

Playoffs are a matter of who loses who you might have played but you don't have to because they are knocked out. If you understand all of that then Fike might have the easiest game in round two Tuesday in high school baseball.

Fike's upset of C B Aycock has set up a home game for them against the #4 seed from the Coastal Conference in Washington. Fike is now the higher seed despite being the #3 from the NEW-6.

Northern Nash on the other hand has to travel to Graham to take on the #1 seed from the Mid States in Southern Alamance. Not an easy draw.

For those of you who think Rocky Mount should have a breather , think again. South Central is much like Fike is in our conference. Dangerous! Once again the Gryphons had better bring the bats to the game or this will not be an easy one. Central is only 13-10 but they beat Rose once which we were not able to do.

Sorry that it has taken me until today to mention this but the girls soccer team was knocked out of the playoffs by Burlington Williams Friday in round two of the playoffs. The Lady Gryphons did not go quietly as they fell in overtime by a 2-1.

Both the boys and girls soccer team were very competitive this year and first year coach Drew Nick can be proud of his first year coaching the Gryphons.

A Day Of Rest

Pretty slow day on the home front today as the only sport of any interest going on is two game sevens in the NBA. They don't really interest me that much.

The Carolina Hurricanes ready themselves to start a new series Monday Night against the Pittsburgh Penguins. If the Canes hold form they will lose 4-1 Monday night and then turn around and win the second game in the series.

They really do play better when their backs are to the wall. There worse games in the entire playoffs were when they lead the series 3-1 and lost two in a row.

There are a few athletes still doing their thing this spring other than baseball and that is the track team members who qualified for the state meet. The state championships are this week.

Baseball plays at home Tuesday night against South Central. The Coastal conference still has four teams alive if you include Rose who is in the 4-A bracket. Conley and Washington join Central as still alive in the playoffs.

Tiger Woods after having been off for nine months is not having his way in the golf world as he did prior to injury. Finishing in the top ten isn't bad but we have all become accustomed to him winning every time he plays. His long layoff has brought back an old old problem. His tee shot. He can't keep it in the fairway. His putting has only been average and has not saved him like it has in the past.

I think last Sunday was Tiger's first time ever of playing in the last group and coming up the 18th hole where he was irrelevant.

There is an old saying in NASCAR that if you run up front enough you are going to win every once in a while. Tiger still runs up. Finishing first may not come as often as in the past.

Don't forget to get your ticket to the sport banquet Thursday night. Dinner is $10 and all winter and spring sports will be in the spot light.

NEW-6'S Top Three Advance

When ever the playoffs begin you never know how good your conference is until you meet the others in the playoffs.

Rocky Mount was 10-1 in conference play this year. They scored 84 runs to average almost eight runs per game. They gave up only six which is a paltry half a run per game. How will that compare when the playoffs start.

Remembering back to 2006 the entire conference went down in the first round. In 2007 Northern Advance to the eastern Finals. Last year Fike and Rocky Mount met in the third round with Rocky Mount winning it all. I think how good the league is can be judged by the opening round.

If it can be judged by what happened in the opening round then the last edition of the NEW-6 is a good baseball league.

Nash Central not even knowing they were playing until Wednesday faced Coastal Foe D H
Conley and as expected the Bulldogs fell to the Vikings 14-4.

Southern Nash playing as the #four seed traveled to Triton high and gave a good showing before falling 4-0.

A couple of days ago I told you that if you have that one pitcher who can beat any body you can be dangerous. Fike has that pitcher William Prince. Last night Prince pitched a one hitter and that hit never left the infield while he struck out 13 batters. Fike scored four times in knocking off C B Aycock 4-0. It was only the fourth win of the season for Prince who also has four losses.
He has lost twice to Rocky Mount and twice to Northern.

Fike upset victory gets them a home Game Tuesday against Washington who is the #4 from the Coastal who shocked Hertford County 2-1.

Northern Nash's 6-0 victory on Thursday over Bartlett Yancy will not be as rewarding as they must now travel to Southern Alamance the #1 seed from the Mid State.

Rocky Mount's 4-1 victory over Southern Wayne gives them one more home game as they will now defend the home turf against South Central who took out White Oak Friday night 8-1.

So the top three are alive in the NEW-6 and will play another day.

Friday in Burlington Alex Durham playing in the quarter finals in the state singles tennis championship was part of what was the best match of the day. In the end Alex fell 0-6,7-6, 6-7
to Jared Bryant of Western Alamance. Set two and three were settled in sudden death after they were even in regulation.

The doubles team of Ross Bradley and Kayshap Kaul also lost in the quarters 6-1,6-1 to Burlington Williams.

All other spring sports teams are now finished and only baseball is left to finish the playoffs. The defending state champs are still alive.

Games Will Only Get Tougher

The baseball team this year has made a habit of being a second time around team. Very few times this season have the Gryphons come out put a game away early hitting.

Last night once again the bats waited to the fifth inning before becoming electric.

If I had to guess I think this years team is better than last year. However I thought the 2007 team was better than the state champs.

Hobbs Johnson's arrival has added depth to a pitching staff that was going to be good without him. This team cannot keep depending on the pitchers to win the game every time out. Even though once again Southern Wayne failed to score more than two runs on this team.

Next week's dilemma is who will start Tuesday. You have to win the second round before you can play in the third. My choice is pitch Benton Moss Tuesday. Why not? He is only 14-0 in his high school career. He has proven in last years playoffs to be a big game pitcher.

These Gryphons cannot keep relying on the pitchers to win every game. It's their time to step up.

I never thought the Hurricanes had a chance in game seven in Boston last night. Getting in my truck after the baseball game I am thinking to myself that when I hear the score and they are only behind by one they still have a chance.

I thought that Boston would score twice early and the Canes would never catch up. Was I suprised when I hear it is one-one near the end of the first period?

I knew then they had it in the bag.

The Hurricanes have been in North Carolina since 1997 and during that time thay have been as good as most NHL teams. If somehow they win the cup this year the Carolina Hurricanes will move up in status in the NHL as one of the elite franchises.

Eight more wins to go.

Survive and Advance

The Rocky Mount Gryphons pounded out ten hit against Southern Wayne but it didn't seem as if they had that many. The Saints had only six but it seemed they had more.

After a sluggish start the Gryphons finally get it together enough to take down Southern Wayne 4-1.

It was the fifth inning before the Gryphons could muster enough hits together to score two runs. Carter Varnell reached on a throwing error and came home to score on back to back hits by Brian Goodwin and Michael Whitehead loaded the bases and Collins Cuthrell sent a fly ball to the wall in center field and scored Varnell. Advancing to third on the Sac fly by Cuthrell. Brain Goodwin scored on a solid hit up the middle by Mr, RBI Ben Fish who just keeps adding to his all time RBI record.

The third run scored on a pitch hit home run by Chris Pittman in the sixth inning. The second run in the sixth scored on a wild pitch with Brian Goodwin on third and he trouted home for the fourth and final run.

The Saints scored on back to back hits in the sixth as the second hit was a double by Jordan Williams who scored Zach Grantham who had singled.

Hobbs Johnson gets a complete game six hitter but as Hobbs has done all year he has not hurt himself by walking batters. He had a lone hit batter as his only free pass of the game. He struck out 14 Saints batters during the game.

Brian Goodwin had two hits,Michael Whitehead two, Collins Cuthrell one single and the big sac fly, Ben Fish an RBI single, Thomas Berry a double,Parker Helms a single and Carter Varnell had a single and scored twice. Pittman had his pitch hit blast.

The Gryphons play at home Tuesday against the winner of the South Central-White Oak game Friday night.

Northern Nash made the top two seeds in the New-6 advancing as Tyler Joyner pitch Northern to round two with a 6-0 victory over Bartlett Yancy.

Friday is the State Championship in singles and doubles tennis. Alex Durham has made the final eight for the Gryphons in singles and the doubles team of Ross Brady and Kayshap Kaul will try to win the doubles.

Those Cardiac Caniacs are at it again. Scott Walkers over time goal with less than two minutes to play in the first over time send the Hurricanes to their third Eastern Finals in this decade.

For the second series in a row the Canes lose game one and manage to beat the higher seed twice at their place. The Boston Bruins are the victim tonight. In overtime Canes 3-Bruins 2

Nash Central Makes baseball Playoffs

Surprise! Surprise! Surprise!

If you have ever seen the Christian football movie "Facing the Giants" then you know that the movie shows about a team knocked out of the playoffs getting back in when a team is caught with ineligible players. I am not sure who but a team that had qualified for the state baseball playoffs failed to get the paperwork in on time to the NCHSAA. Their penalty they were taken out of their bracket and Nash Central being the first alternate gets in.

So Wednesday becomes their first practice this week for the Bulldogs as they travel to D H Conley in hopes of pulling off the the movies miracle.

Rocky Mount high starts defense of their 2008 state title as they play host to Southern Wayne tonight. Wes Bradshaw the long time baseball PA announcer for the Gryphons who has recently found employment in Pinetops will miss tonights game. Yours truly will be behind the mike
.
Urgent-urgent-urgent

Trying to beat Friday's weather forecast Northern Nash has moved their opening round playoff game up to tonight instead of Friday
Northern Nash starts their quest in the baseball playoffs at home to Bartlett Yancy. Fike will have a short ride but a tough test as they travel to C B Aycock. Southern Nash is on the road to Harnett county playing Triton.

After their opening round soccer victory the Lady Gryphons travel Friday night to Burlington Williams.

Also on Friday three players from the tennis team have made it to the State Finals lead by Alex Durham who will play in the singles.

Finally tonight the Carolina Hurricanes try not to make history by losing a 3-1 games advantage to the Boston Bruins. Boston is one of the orginal six team that started the National Hockey league. In all their glorious history they have never come back after being down three games to one. In their short history the Canes have never lost a game seven.