Rengades Make The Final Eight

I was unable to keep you up to date on the Renegades last night with the coverage of the Brian Goodwin Bash.  The tournament in Cooperstown allows all teams to play in six games and after having to come back Wednesday morning at 9.30 to finish the game that stopped at 2.30am because of fog the Renegades won that game and after the pool play they were 5-1.

The 104 teams are all given a rank and the Renegades were seeded in ninth spot when Wednesday afternoon started the single elimination win or go home.  They won their opening game 8-6 beating a team from New Jersey.  Wednesday night they won their second game besting Moorpark California 13-0.  Starting Thursday morning there  are eight teams left and the Renegades find themselves playing the #1 seed team from Connecticut and get whipped 10-0.

Over all they go 7-2 and finish in the quarter finals.  Will they have some stories to tell their grand kids about the week we played in Cooperstown and had a game at 2am in the morning.

Thursday night high school football began as JV football was throughout the area.  The Rocky Mount Gryphons unveiled a shot gun offense.  Those of you that are not old enough to know what that offense was tonight they used the old single wing.  The back who has the ball snapped to him can run with it or hand off to the the player standing beside him.

Every now and then you get sneaky and snap the ball to the player beside the player holding his hands out as if he is going to receive the ball.  There are all kinds of formations in the backfield and the center can snap the ball to any player in the backfield.  It worked rather well as Rocky Mount beat Bunn 34-2

Volleyball completed their first week of the season having losses at home to South Central and winning over SouthWest Edgecombe.  Thursday night they played at powerhouse D H Conley and got blitzed.

Soccer played to a 1-1 tie with Heritage.  Girls tennis lost for the first time this year as they lost 7-2 at C B Aycock.

Varsity high school football gets rolling tonight as the game of the week will be at Nash Central as two time defending 2-A state champs Tarboro will travel to the Bulldogs.  Don't be shocked if the Bulldogs win.

The second best game of the area will have SouthWest Edgecombe visiting Southern Nash.  I have heard a lot of moaning coming from Pinetops that the Cougars are mighty young this year. I was told by a couple of referees that Southern Nash was the best team on the field last weekend in the jamboree held at Fike.  Northern Nash host Beddingfield as the Crouch era heads into it's third year .  Rocky Mount heads to Bunn to open the 2011 season.  There is a good chance that all four Nash County high schools win tonight but surely Nash Central has the biggest hill to climb.

Rocky Mount Baseball Community Celebrates

Word started spreading on Tuesday that Brian Goodwin had signed his pro baseball contract with the Washington Nationals just before the stroke of midnight Monday. Phones were ringing as the word spread.  Early Tuesday evening a conversation between Don Fish and Jammy Mitchell happened and during that talk they both decided that they were not going to let Brian get out of town  without all those who love baseball had a chance to congratulate him.

You see just two months ago Xavier Macklin signed with the A's one day and was off playing ball in Vermont the next. The Rocky Mount baseball world never got to tell him how proud they are of him.  They didn't want that to happen again.  Over night word spread, there's going to be a party for Brian at Ashley and Don Fish's house Wednesday night y'all come.

75 or so people came and ate Doug Saul's barbecue right in their back yard.  This was not a celebration for a Rocky Mount Gryphon but for all his teammates during the years that were part of the State games championship at 12 years old.  Two state titles as Babe Ruth Championships, two Southeastern Titles  in Babe Ruth and a second in the Babe Ruth World Series at 13 and 14 years old..  Yet to come was a state high school title.

This was a celebration by all the moms and pops of all the motels that have spent together with all these kids for all those years and all those tournaments. The vacations days used up in Arkansas, Tennessee or  Boston and even when the vacations days were gone they were still there following their sons. Brian joins Xavier as the two who have made it so far.  Could there yet be more from this group.

Tuesday night in the back yard of the Don Fish family  most of the mothers and fathers  were there to help Sylvester and Brenda celebrate. The Joyner's.The Williams', The Ramsey's, The Berry's,The Pittman's. The Cockrell's, The Clark's, and even Xavier's family came and so many more.  Coaches Pat Smith, Travis Ward, Jammy Mitchell and Kent Cox. Then there were those who just love baseball, They all came to congratulate Brian Goodwin and to celebrate what these kids did back then and what is still left in the future.

So many of this group that won all these titles are still deep in college baseball and whether there is baseball after college they have so much to remember.  The baseball world of Rocky Mount came together for one evening in the back yard of the Fish family to pat Brian Goodwin on the back  and to look at how proud they are of all of them. This was a family reunion put together in 24 hours. The baseball family of Rocky Mount.