Three Shut Outs in a Row.

Rocky Mount High School completed the first cycle though the conference race becoming the only team to go undefeated blanking Northern Nash 8-0.

The Gryphons got timely hitting ten in all, help from the Knights in the field three errors causing five unearned runs and of course pitching. Hobbs Johnson didn't seem to have good stuff but when you look at the score sheet two hits, eight strikeouts and zero base on balls in six inning pitched. Comfortably a head by eight Kent Cox used Jeremy Trevathan in the seventh inning who kept the shutout in tact which is now three straight zero scores against Northern, Southern and Fike.

The Gryphons score in the third when Spencer Bell reach on a Knight error. Michael Whitehead singles and Bell scored on a single by Collins Cuthrell. Both Whitehead and Cuthrell scored on a double play try by Northern but they failed to get two outs and it was three to nothing.

Two runs runs scored in the fourth after Brandon Amerson singled Spencer Bell walked and both scored on a fly ball that was not caught in the outfield.

Thomas Berry got Rocky Mount first earned run off Brandon Denton when he sent a homer toward the Armory in the fifth. Brandon Amerson got his second hit of the night to drive in run number seven still in the fifth.

Collins Cuthrell open the bottom of the sixth with a single and came home on a Parker Helms double. Cuthrell had three hits in the game leading the Gryphons.

Fuller Weatherly had a double but never got farther than second and Andrew Smith had a single for the only two Northern hits.

The JV Gryphons won their first game of the year 5-3 over Northern, and softball lost to Northern by more than ten runs.

Rocky Mount starts the second trip around the conference Thursday hosting Nash Central

Sweet Revenge

The Lady Gryphon soccer team has one conference loss heading into Monday's match with Hunt. That lost was at Hunt by a 2-1 score. Another big crowd was on hand as the Lady Gryphons shut out the Lady warriors by a 3-0 score.

This game was knotted 0-0 at the half. Twenty five minutes left it was still nil-nil. Syndey Browder out raced the Hunt goalie to a ball that was loose in front of the Hunt goal with 21.18 left in the game and kicked the loose shot in for the first goal of the game. Any time that a tight match gets a big shot one way or the other Rocky Mount's spirits rose while Hunt's dipped and it did not take long before a corner kick was guided into the net by Casey Cooke and the Lady Gryphons lead 2-0. Alison Raper put the icing on the cake for the Ladies giving the Lady Gryhons a 3-0 victory.

I told you on Saturday that when I left the Fike game they were leading 2-0 and won 2-1. Two straight school days the Lady Gryphons beat Fike and Hunt.

Across the street at the softball field Beddingfield beat softball 15-1.

Tuesday and Thursday baseball and softball are home this week. They only have Northern and Nash Central on the docket. I think coach Eddie Loesner of Northern will not be there as he has one more game to serve after being tossed out of a game last week. Coaches get two games suspension when they get tossed.

I will be on the PA Tuesday as Wes has already called to tell me he will not be there . Thursday I will be taping the softball game for TV.

Yesterday during my updates of local players who are playing college I told you of Gabe Brown playing for Lenoir Community College. I found out today that Lenoir has two Gabe Browns playing on the team. Can you imagine that two people named Gabe would even be on the same team much less have the same last name. The Gabe hitting 417 is from New Bern. I will try to get an update on Rocky Mount's Gabe Brown as early as possible.

North Carolina has been to the college world series it seems every year this decade. They were swept by Miami over the weekend and unless they have a complete turn a round North Carolina will not even make the ACC tournament this year.

Carolina is three games behind the eighth place team in the league and you have to finish eighth to make the ACC tournament. They have four series left this year and they are Virginia Tech, Virginia, Wake Forest and Clemson. Carolina needs to win nine out of twelve games and hope. They need pitching and they don't grow on trees during the season.

Injury Bug

There is nothing that changes the dynamics of sports more than injuries. Championship teams can look average when an injury effects them. Average teams can look as if they have never practiced when injuries hit. Some teams can over come an injury, others fall by the wayside.

Rocky Mount baseball has their third player injured this season that has missed time due to injury. The first two played a direct part in our loss of the Easter tournament in Four Oaks. Two players sat healing injuries in a non conference game in order to be healthy when conference played started after Easter.

Most of you read in the "Telegram" that Matthew Berry did not play against Southern due to having rolled his ankle in practice last week. The injury is more than a day to day injury. The Gryphon lead off hitter and first baseman is out for a while.

It is my opinion that this team can go far in the playoffs if they score five runs every game. Losing his bat puts in jeopardy this team ability to score five runs per game. Defensively this team can make the adjustments but who is going to step forward and get us two hits a game in his offensive place?

Brian Goodwin has been in an offensive slump for the Tar heels and with it the Heels are slumping too. Brian still is hitting 294 and has driven in thirty eight runs. He has a total of 18 extra base hits.

Ben Fish has seen action in fifteen games for the Campbell Fighting Camels and batted twelve times and has three hits and three runs knocked in.

Finally have found some info on Gabe Brown at Lenoir Community College. Gabe is hitting a whopping 417 with thirty hits in seventy at bats. He has also pitched ten plus innings for the Lancers and his era is over six.

Xavier Macklin his hitting 313 for North Carolina A&T where he has hit seven homers and driven in thirty two.

Alex Pearce has played in thirty games at UNC Pembroke and started twenty five where he is hitting about 220 and driven in sixteen runs.

I can not find any stats on Cameron Ramsey at Wake Tech. Rob Ramsey told me he umpired a game at WT and Cameron was starting in left fied and got a hit in the game while he was there. Wake Tech is in their first year of baseball and are yet not up to date with all of the electronic stats of other programs.

Zach and Patrick Barnes are playing at Lenoir and both have batted in seven games or so. Zach is hitting 333 and Patrick 250.

Since the last time I told you about our locals at Pitt C C there is no new stats to show. Zack Woodley, Jim Leggett and Mike Williams are all members of a nationally ranked team who going into this week end was 29-7 on the year.

Brian Braswell is having a solid senior year at Campbell and has started twenty six of Campbell's thirty four games. he hitting 315 and has knocked in nineteen runs.

The NC Wesleyan local contingent is being lead by Andrew Webb. Webby is turning into a solid pitcher with a 5-2 record and era of 2.83. Brian Allen is hitting over 300 for the Bishops. Tyler Clark a solid freshman year hitting over 300 and has started thirty games. Daniel Moore hitting over 300. Chad Womble has pitched over twenty five innings and Eric Mull has seen action in eight games hitting 167.

Any time that you might have an update on any of our local players feel free to let me know.

Prom Night

What a beautiful morning to put up the windows and smell mother nature. If there seems to be an extra smell of perfume or Cologne in the air it might have something to do with the prom being tonight for the seniors at Rocky Mount High.

I didn't get to stay around to the end but girls soccer was leading 2-0 with 28 minutes to go yesterday in their match with Fike. Monday there is a revenge match with Hunt at home 5.00pm.

Softball is running out of chances to find victory this year. Monday they play their final non conference game at home with Beddingfield. Tuesday they are home to Northern.

Tuesday baseball is home to Northern and then Thursday home to Nash Central. There are just three week left in the regular season for baseball and softball.

Next week I will be doing three broadcast for the Stretchlon Sports Show. Thursday I will be at Rocky Mount softball where Nash Central brings their one loss team to play Rocky Mount. The following Monday April 26Th I will be at Rocky Mount Academy for the Faith-Rocky Mount Academy baseball game. Then that Thursday the 29Th I'll be at Nash Central when Northern Nash and The Bulldogs play softball. Right now Nash Central looks like the best softball team in the area as well as may be having the best player in Ashley Bone.

A couple of days ago I asked this trivia question to let you simmer on it for a few days and see if you might know this one. There are only eight jerseys that are actually retired at Carolina in Basketball. If you look up towards the rafters, you cannot see the ceiling for all the jerseys hanging there but only eight are retired. Jack Cobb last played in 1926. What was his number?

He didn't have a number. Back in those days their jersey's only had North Carolina on the front. Have you ever wondered why Babe Ruth wore three and Lou Gehrig had four. It was where they hit in the lineup. Babe hit third , Lou hit fourth. I wonder what number a relief pitcher had?

Wachovia Cup?

Officially we are two thirds of the way through with the Wachovia standings now that the winter sports numbers have been posted. The Athletic program at Rocky Mount has a sizable lead heading into spring sports. It certainly seems that the Gryphons are front runners and once they get the lead they don't coast to the finish line but try to pull away even further.

Baseball is in the conference lead, after five conference matches tennis is undefeated, and girls soccer has only lost one conference match. Track and field it is hard to tell where we are among conference foes but about the middle seems about right. Softball is the only sport down on their luck.

Girls soccer yesterday beat Nash Central 11-0. They have a match today at 5.00pm at home with Fike . Monday they have the rematch with Hunt the only team to beat the Lady Gryphons in conference.

The NCAA coaches have asked for and received three rules changes, oddly enough the best one will not go into effect until 2011. The coaches have asked for a penalty of no touchdown any time a player taunts while still on the playing field before scoring. Pointing their fingers as they run, swan dive into the end zone and of course high stepping. I think this is a great rule change.

During my playing days in the Roman times of the 1960's you never saw any one dance after a tackle, any thing that made just one player stand out. Why did you never see that? First off your coach would have killed you and when you got home your father would have dug you out of the grave and killed you again.

Billy"Whiteshoes" Johnson was the first so called show boater with his Charleston Dance and pound the ball in the ground after a touchdown. No one had ever done that before and it caught the NFL off guard as to what to do to his performance. They did nothing so others started. By the 1990 the Redskins Smurfs were performing in the end zone as a group.

What happens in the NFL is going to college and what happens in college is coming to high schools. Thank the lord that high schools put a stop on the show boating before it ever got off the ground.

I think the first time a touchdown is scored and a team loses a game because of a taunting penalty that will be the end of taunting. Players will fall in line. It would be nice if the NFL had the same rule. Most all actions on the field on Saturday were seen on Sunday first and it will be harder to stop if they keep seeing it on Sunday.

Why should there ever be taunting in football. Every play you have and opportunity to knock someone on their butt. Since I use to be one of the guys that was always on his butt I knew who was the best on that play and most of everyone in the stands knew too.

A Players Dream Game

Hunt High School's starting catcher Kyle Pittman had a game of a life time Tuesday night against Southern Nash. Pittman hit two grand slams in one inning which is only the sixth time that has ever been done in North Carolina High school baseball history.

Oddly enough the fifth player in North Carolina high school history was in the Southern Nash Dugout watching Pittman and his feat. Ricky Howard while as a senior did it for Southern earlier this decade. Howard is now an assistant for the Firebirds.

Eight runs batted in, in one game WOW, what a feat but Pittman also had a double during his dream game. What more could Pittman possibly do?, maybe hit a two run homer in has last at bat to give him ten rbi's in one game which is one run short of the state record.

I guess the question to ask Pittman is what did he have to eat before the game that caused this to happen? It may not have been anything he ate but Tom Suiter and the Extra Effort Award team from WRAL-TV earlier in the afternoon had been at Hunt recording Kyle Pittman as the Extra Effort award winner.

Talk about pumping a player up. Glad Hunt didn't play the Gryphons that night.

Lady Gryphon softball lost number fifteen on the year tonight at Southern Nash.

Varsity baseball won at Southern Nash 7-0. Benton Moss pitched your basic complete game shutout striking out sixteen. We need to get Charles Alston to search the baseball record book and see what the record is for strikeouts in back to back games in Gryphon history. Hobbs Johnson struck out only 13 Tuesday. (Trying to be funny there) The two conference games this week the defense other than the pitchers and Thomas Berry were only involved in 13 defensive outs. The pitching did the rest.

This is victory #15 for the Gryphons and they play at home Tuesday night against Northern

Time To Drop The Hammer

NFL commissioner Roger Goddell has a major decision to make in regards to Ben Roethlisberger. The two met Tuesday in Goddell's office in New York.

Goddell has been heavy with the big stick when it has come to players and their actions when ever it has been and embarrassment to the NFL. Somewhere along the way those players have always been guilty in a court of law and their punishment was based on that guilt.

The district attorney in Georgia in Roethlisberger latest entanglement has all but said he is guilty but getting a guilty verdict in a court would be hard. Big Ben has been in the league six years and has now acted stupid three times. Twice on sexual charges which in neither case have there been any charges. He almost killed himself after his rookie year on a motor cycle. To say the least to be one of the 100 million dollar quarterbacks, the face of the NFL Ben has to be the stupidest.

In order for Goddell to keep the players approving his method of suspending players when ever they don't act as if they are professional players he must come down hard on Big Ben. Four games seems to me to be about right.

The saving grace for Goddell just might be the Rooney family the owners of the Steelers. It sure seems as if they are headed toward suspending Ben which could take the pressure off Goddell. Roethlisberger needs time away from the game and learn to realize that the NFL has given him more than he has given the NFL.

Got home last night from the game to see the last hour of the baseball movie the Rookie. Sometimes movies get better the more you watch them and you come to realize that this movie is a lot like what you have been through.

If you haven't seen the movie it is about Jim Morris who as a teenager tried to make it in minor league baseball until arm trouble ended his career. He becomes a high school coach and as the years pass tells his team he will try out again if they will win their conference title and they do. His arm had healed and during the try out as a 35 year old threw twelve pitches in a row at 98 miles and hour. The Tampa Devil Rays signed him up.

What I really like about this movie is the way the entire town becomes a part of watching him try to make it. I can relate to this as a ten year old bat boy of the Ahoskie American Legion team in 1962 and 1963 as Jimmy Hunter signed right out of high school and went to the major leagues. Jimmy was from Hertford but because he played legion in Ahoskie there is no one that lived in Ahoskie at the time that will not tell you he wasn't from Ahoskie.

When ever Kansas City came to Baltimore car loads of people from both Hertford and Ahoskie went to see their boy play. Morris got credit for playing two years in the bigs which was a dream comes true for everyone pulling for him.

I have another trivia question to let you bend you mind over. The dean Dome is full of jerseys hanging in the rafters. Only eight however are officially retired. Can you tell me what number Jack Cobb wore ?