Post 58 Blows by Post 39

Later this month Pitt County Post 39 will be hosting the State American Legion Championship on the campus of ECU. Since they are the host for the event they automatically qualify for the event.

Post 39 much like Post 58 has several players playing for other teams and this season they could only muster a fourth place seeding in the Southern Division. Last night Post 58 took game one 10-3 and tonight game two was played in Winterville.

Last night a Junior legion game caused the senior legion game not to start until until 8.19pm and tonight has turned out to be rain that has slowed play. Regardless of any delays Post 58 has done damage again tonight taking out Post 39 10-0 in seven innings.

Coach Matt Bryan chose to pitch Dillon Cockrell and Cockrell pitched superbly going six inning and allowing a first inning single and a fourth inning one bagger. Mike Williams pitch the seventh three up and three down and Post 58 can clinch their opening round series with a victory Thursday night at Northern Nash.

Since I did not make the trip Don Johnson told me by phone that Post 58 got one in the first and four in the second to take control of the game. Post 58 collected 13 hits in sending Pitt county down on mercy rule.

If Post 58 can take Pitt County again tomorrow night then the host team for the state championship will be there only because they are the host not becaused they earned their way there.

Also tonight Wilson Post 13 beat New Bern 4-3 to take a 2-0 lead in their series. Last night Wayne County beat Edenton 14-1. Tonight playing in Edenton Post 40 wins game two 8-5 to even that series at one game each.. Kinston outscored Ahoskie 20-12 for a two games to none lead.

Post 58 once again has posted double digits scoring against another team and with the win tonight is now 10-2 on the season.

Post 58 tries to clinch their opening round series Thursday night at Northern Nash. There will be a Junior legion game again before us so Senior Legion will not start until 8.00pm.

Come on out and enjoy our kids . They are very entertaining!

The game Of A Lifetime

Cameron Ramsey throughout his teenage years has been a utility player for most of his career whether it was during the Babe Ruth run to the world series or during his career at Rocky Mount High.

Never having been a regular starter in high school Cameron recently tried out for the brand new Wake Technical College baseball team and next year as a freshman will be on the team. Tonight Matt Bryan has seen something in Cameron and inserted him into the starting lineup in right field and Cameron responded with the game of his life.

Down 1-0 in the second inning Ramsey lead off the second and hit a blast that cleared the left center field wall to tie the game at 1-1. In the fourth Cameron walked and eventually score to tie the game at 3-3. The fifth inning saw Ramsey collected a double and scored and he followed that with a RBI single in the seventh.

For the night Ramsey was three for three with a home run,double two rbi's and two runs scored.
Collins Cuthrell went three for five collecting two rbi's. Xavier Macklin gave Post 58 their second home run of the night, he also got two hits in the game. Ben Fish was two for four and as usual another RBI. TJ Taylor opened the game for Post 58 by doubling but never scored.

Brandon Denton started on the mound was rocked for six hits in his first two plus innings and settled down and did not give up another hit through his six innings pitched. Bill Clark pitch the last three innings for Post 58.

Coleman Pitt takes a one game to none lead in the best three out of five series against Pitt County Post 39. This is the ninth straight game Post 58 has hit double figure scoring and they now have twenty two home runs in eleven games played. They are now 9-2 on the season

Post 39 collected nine hits but could only garner three runs.

Game two is Wednesday night at Pitt Community College in Winterville.. Game three will be back at Northern Nash Thursday Night.

Final Post 58 -10 Post 39-3

What's The Deal With The Horns

I tried my best to watch as much of the Federation Cup Championship yesterday and it was really interesting when it looked as if the U S was going to win in the first half.

Try as I might I had a hard time focusing on the play with those horns blowing in the back ground. Apparently fans were given Kazoos upon entering and most of them blared the whole game.

Camera's showed them at least once and they looked like Clarinets. they looked like a concert band that was going to play after the match. It was very distracting trying to watch the game and hearing a swarm of bees in the back ground.

I think the U S team gave a good effort but you know Brazil scored a goal that was never given to them so the second half was all Brazil. The best team won.

The American legion playoffs have moved up to Tuesday night at Northern Nash. There is a conflict with the field with Babe Ruth or Jr Legion I don't know which but the game will start soon as possible.

The first round of the playoffs have always been two out of three during the first round. It will be a three out of five and Post 39 is our opponent.

If the series goes five games Post 58 will host Tuesday-Thursday Saturday. I hope it is over by Saturday that being the 4th . Post 39 is the team with the Rose high players on it.

Has any body noticed this but me. Major league baseball use to be on the cable on every channel every night. You could get the Braves, Cubs and white Sox, some times the Orioles and then whatever the networks were carrying.

Now there is just the WGN carrying the Cubs and White Sox. Then the network games on specific days. What happened to progress. This time of year baseball should be on some channel that we can get on cable every day.

Durham Tops Tennis

This mornings Rocky Mount Telegram sports section features Rocky Mount High's Alex Durham as the tennis player of the year.

There is a board of education meeting Monday night and pending approval there will be a new football coach at Rocky Mount. If you looked at the list that Charles Alston put out a couple of weeks ago if rumors are true that name is on the list.

Coleman Pitt Post 58 begins the Legion playoffs Wednesday night at Northern Nash. They are the #1 seed in the division. I don't think you will see any more 26-1 scores the rest of this year.

News out of Raleigh of Nate Irving the best defensive player N C State football team had last year was involved in an auto accident last night and broke his leg and has a collapsed lung. That's all we need is to lose Irvin for the whole season.

Tom O'Brian is going into his third year and recruiting is coming on. N C State is close to being where all Wolfpack fans want. However when you lose your best player that can only hurt gains made in the first two years.

I ride by the football stadium two and three times a day. I have been noticing some work being done on the field. It is hard to believe but Hurricane Floyd's flooding of the field effects are still haunting the football stadium even now ten years later.

I don't watch soccer much, but this afternoon I will take notice of the Federation Cup finals featuring the USA and Brazil. If the U S could win it might be a landmark day in the history of American soccer.

Way back in the 60's when they first put soccer on TV in the summer to fill time slots I can remember the players would fake injuries just so they could have commercials. That has been one of the reasons soccer has been so slow to develop in America. TV didn't know how to make money off of it because of no time outs.

All they need to do is like college basketball is take a time out on the first dead ball under thirty five minutes and so forth.

Being a dial flipper during commercials has any one else ever noticed that regardless of what sport it is when you flip the dial all other channels are also doing commercials.

Peppers The NBA And Soccer

When the news broke that Julius Peppers wanted to be traded a couple of months ago I questioned what in the world was Peppers thinking. Well all is well in Panther land now as Peppers has signed a one year deal worth $16 million. Julius Peppers will be a Carolina Panther for at least one more year.

The Cleveland Cavaliers are doing everything they can to convince LeBron James that he needs to stay in Cleveland. Next season is Lebron's last year of his contract and rumors are flying that the New York Knicks will land him next year. As long as the Knicks have the ownership they have now, why would anybody want to play for the Knicks? Money?

Despite the Shaq trade going to Cleveland, I think the best move of the week was Orlando landing Vince Carter. Orlando gave up a lot but they desperately need a person that can score when you need to score.

Eight players with North Carolina ties were drafted Thursday in the NBA Draft. The Charlotte Bobcats went for Gerald Henderson of Duke. Michael Jordan is the greatest basketball player in NBA history. His decision making on the quality of other players he's strictly New York Knick management material.

I guess having a father who played in the NBA helped both Stephan Curry and Gerald Henderson. neither is ready for the NBA and I don't see where either will ever be as good as their dads.

I don't care what sport you are when ever you draft a player as a 1st round pick you should be expecting that those players will play for you ten years or more. i think this years draft demonstrates why there are so many foreigners are being drafted. American players come to the NBA too early, they are not fundamentally ready as well their skills are not developed yet.

Foreign players by the time the NBA scouts watch them they are developed, having good shooting skills are are far more developed than American players. Even though foreign players are not athletic generally they are far more superior in fundamentals.

There are a lot of people who don't understand why soccer has not taken off in the United States. I think the answer is simple. We have never had a generation of mothers and fathers that played soccer.

I grew up in football, basketball, and baseball so when my kids played soccer they were coached by the only guy who had a kid on the field that had ever played soccer. No longer is soccer a game where the guy coaching the team has no idea which end of the ball you kick.

Sunday American soccer can take a 1980 step like the hockey team had in the 1980 Olympics. I don't even know the name of the tournament that they are in now but already they have been beaten by Brazil 3-nil.

You know in 1980 before the Olympics the Russians beat the USA 8-0. If somehow the USA beats Brazil Sunday soccer just might be the most popular sport in America in twenty years.

You say it will never happen. Who would have thought the largest auto company in America is Nissan twenty years ago.

Post 58 Clinches Title

Coleman Pitt Post 58 needed tonight's win to take home first place in eastern division of American Legion Baseball. It took no more than the third batter of the game to get the ball rolling.

Xavier Macklin who has spent the last month playing for the Wilson Tobs joined Post 58 today which is the last day until playoff rosters are turned in. Macklin first at bat he sent a line drive down the left field line which was ruled fair and a home run gave post 58 a 2-0 lead over Tarboro Post 316. Leading off the third inning Macklin launched a drive that cleared the scoreboard at Northern Nash. Batting again in the third X hit a majestic fly ball high and deep in the left center gap that was caught by the center fielder leaning on the wall.

Tarboro pitching walked 11 batters and Post 316 defense committed six errors. This put ducks on the pond every inning and Coleman Pitt Post 58 slams Tarboro Post 316 26-1 in seven innings.

Macklin went three for five with four RBI's. Ben Fish was 2-4 with a homer and three RBI's and reach base six times.. Tyler Clark had two hits and a RBI. Mike Smith did not play the first half of the game but still collected two singles in four at bats. Gabe Brown had a triple and a single with a run batted in. Mike Williams had only one hit but it left the park giving him two rbi's. Collins Cuthrell,and Alex Pearce had singles.

Tonight closes out the regular season for Post 58. They finish at 8-2 overall and 7-1 in division play. Having started late due to the Northern Nash playoff run and coach Matt Bryan assisting coaching Eastern Wayne in the State championships Post 58 made their opposition pay as they tried to score runs for the games they didn't play. Post 58 scored 129 run in eight division games a whopping 16.2 runs per game. In the ten regular season games Coleman Pitt hit twenty home runs.

Brandon Denton pitched the first three innings by design as coach Matt Bryan had decided to give everyone a chance tonight to pitch an he almost did. Bill Clark pitched the fourth and fifth. T J Taylor the sixth and Alex Pearce got two outs in the seventh when Ben Fish came on to get the save HA HA. He struck out the only batter he face in pitching for the first time since he was in high school.

This is a really good Legion team that can go far in the playoffs. I would have no problem at all saying if this team had Tyler Joyner and Hobbs Johnson pitching they would be odds on favorites to win the state American Legion title.

Even without them they are going to go farther than any Post 58 team in quite a while. But when they finally lose out it will be because they don't have enough pitching against some team that is going to shut down our hitting.

Playoffs start Wednesday night at Northern Nash. It will be a two out of three first round.

Come watch this team play. They are fun to watch!

Legion Ball and NBA Draft Tonight

Tonight Coleman Pitt Post 58 American Legion team will go for the regular season title in the eastern division. A victory would give Post 58 home field advantage during the 1st round of the playoffs. The first round is a two out of three and if today all games were in the books we will start with Greenville Post 160. However that might change by weeks end.

Game time is 7.00pm at Northern Nash and Tarboro is the tonight’s opponent. Last week Post 58 beat Tarboro 28-3 at Tarboro.

1st round of the playoffs start July 1st at home and July 3rd will also be a home game if needed. The first round has to be finished by July 4th so hopefully no baseball on the fourth unless rain intercedes.

The second round is a three out of five would start July 6th.

Tonight is also the NBA Draft. Here are my thoughts on some of the locals.

Tyler Hansbrough- North Carolina… I don’t believe Tyler will ever be an all star in the NBA. I do think that fifteen years from now when he announces his retirement you will say. He was a good NBA player.

Ty Lawson- North Carolina… Ty is the mystery man in this draft. I doubt whether he will last any longer than his three year contract. Can’t play defense, too short.

Gerald Henderson- Duke.. I’m still trying to figure out why he is going pro early. Not a great shooter, not a great ball handler, Sounds like an NBA first rounder to me. Will play along time in Europe.

Courtney Fells- N C State… I think Fells has the NBA game. Maybe not an all star but a serviceable player. He may not be drafted but will make somebody’s team.

Wayne Ellington-North Carolina… Maybe best Carolina player for the NBA this year he will be an all star.

Danny Green-North Carolina… will probably start out in Europe But I think he will make it some day in the NBA.

Jeff Teague-Wake Forest… Is a super star waiting to happen in about three years? He is leaving two years early.

James Johnson Wake Forest…. His style is the NBA Style. Will be a very good NBA player for a long time.

Stephan Curry- Davidson…. There are guys cut out to be college players and some molded for the NBA. Great college player, but at six feet two inches he will need to be a point guard. Ball handling is not part of his game. He will be in the NBA at least for three years because he will be a high pick. He will get a lot of money for little results in the NBA.

I have no crystal ball to gaze into so who knows what the results will be.