College Baseball In North Carolina Is Booming

Ever since the rain out of the third game of the North Carolina-N C State baseball series late in April the intensity of college baseball has ramped up a notch.  Look last years ACC Tournament game in Greensboro which at the time was the largest ACC crowd ever was beaten by this year's ACC Tournament game.  People are saying this rivalry is beginning to form.  Look folks in baseball State and Carolina has always been a tough ticket to get.  Their stadium sizes have had something to do with it when only 1,500 could get in but this rivalry has intensified because now both are national powers.

I don't know who is going to win the CWS but there is no other conference  in the country that can say they had two conference members in the top five in the end.  There is no other state that can say they had two teams that made it to Omaha.  This baseball rivalry has always been there but now that both are top five teams the stakes have gotten more important.  Both should be just as good next year

Don't be shocked if you are in the Wolfpack or Rams club to see literature wanting you to give money to expand both stadiums.  Both are land locked to a major degree but I could see both schools trying to add two thousand more seats each in the near future.

It sure hasn't hurt the Big Four having the tournaments in Greensboro and Durham in minor league ball parks.  Look DBAP was not big enough for the Tournament game this year so the writing is on the wall for baseball find a bigger park for the ACC tournament but it has to be in North Carolina if you want to draw large crowds.

I was so glad to see Benton Moss get to pitch in the CWS.  TV said he was hitting 94 with his fastball.  Carolina's starting pitching took a nose dive towards the end of the regular season and there were many who questions whether Benton might be hurt.  After the way Hobbs Johnson threw Thursday and Benton getting a strike out  against his only batter I think  Carolina's pitching problem was they went too much to curve balls late in the season.  Hobbs didn't throw one for 8 and 1/3 innings and Benton blew by his one hitter.

I think for what ever reason Carolina's  pitching coach lost confidence in their fastballs and relied too much on their curves.  I don't care who you are if you hit 90 mph  or more and in Benton's case have a curve that drops off the table and Hobb's curve dives in the dirt  I want my pitcher throwing three out of four pitches fast balls and keep the hitters guessing when the curve is coming.  Late in the season everyone knew a curve was coming from both.  If I am a hitter looking curve and you slip me a fastball I am going to be late swinging and sitting in the dugout struck out.

I am so proud of the way both teams played this year and I have only one complaint about the College World Series.  Why in the world did Carolina wear those Duke blue tops?  Sunday when Carolina wore Carolina Blue and State had on the red tops that to me is Carolina meeting State.  I thought  Duke had make a cameo in Omaha.

Another Rain Out For Post 58

This low pressure system off the coast has scratched another game off the schedule for Coleman Pitt Post 58.  If my count is right we have lost six games to weather, two early on when neither side was ready to start the season and had to forfeit one.  They stand at 5-5 over all and 5-1 in area one  play and as of right now still have eight more conference games to make up because this strange season has taken another twist to add I can't believe this.

I have very few official details but Ahoskie Post 102 has cancelled the rest of their season after an incident after their game Thursday night.  That's all I know as of this moment or should I say that is all I am willing to say publicly about now.  What the league has done as anyone who has played Post 102 will drop that game as if it has not been played at all and any team like Post 58 who was suppose to go to Ahoskie  this Tuesday for a double header will not.  Instead of 16 conference games we are now down to 14. Does anybody know the number to Ripley's Believe It Or Not.  That is the kind of season this has been.

Since this spring during the Big East season the entire league was average and since most of the players are suppose to be from the Nash County Big East area that would lead that Post 58 is an average team this year.  However not that many players are from the Big East but with the players added from other areas  this team still has the qualities of a Big East team.  Light hitting and fair to Midland   pitching.  That is how this team has played so far.

How can you explain that with this type team that at this point this team is 5-1 in conference games.  Well, the good answer is awesome coaching and Hank Jones and Pat Smith are  hard to beat when looking at  other coaching combo's in the area that are better.  I wish I could say that was the answer but quite frankly the entire conference looks like the Big East.

Our only loss was to Wayne County and it was our worse game of the year defensively.  WC is solid but not a team that makes me shake in my boots.  This season is one of those seasons that if this was another year we might be in the lower part of the standing but we are as good as anybody this year.  So why is that?  There are many answers and each one is a good answer if I was on Family Feud.

Travel Ball is stealing players but this year not that many good players from this area playing travel.  Beach, Legion comes right when high school ends  and last until July 10 and then the playoffs.  Kids have cars today and can go where ever they want.  Here is the one that I think digs deep into baseball's future.  I just don't see enough players that love the game that would get up at 9am and play all day  and go back and play some more after supper.  Yes Post 58 has three or four of those guys but back in my day the whole team was filled with every gym rats.  Playing baseball in 95 degree weather is too much work when I could be at the beach or in front of a TV screen playing John Madden.

We live in a different world today.

Legion Takes Two / Carolina Ousted

Coleman Pitt Post 58 swept a double header from Windsor Post 37 tonight 11-1 in five innings and 9-6.  Spenser Ramsey scattered seven hits over over his five innings of work but even though he had base runners on he didn't compound the problem with base only balls.  He only had one for the night.

Adam Bayless was the hitting hero as as he collected two hits and one left the park with the bases loaded.  He had five rbi's in game one.  David Williams and Chase Roupp also had two hits for the game.  Linwood Jones,Brock Waynick, Nick Vester and Andy Morris all had a hit and Morris' double drove in the final two runs of a 7 run fifth to get the game to a ten run mercy rule.

The night cap Hank Jones started David Williams on the mound and lasted only one inning as P37 playing in the night cap as the home team scorched Williams for three hits in the first but three base on balls a hit batter found the Coleman Pitt bunch down 5-1 at the end of one.  Enter Pascal Ammons  a pitcher for Cornith Holder in Wendell and Ammons shuts down P37 for the next four inning holding them  hit less.  He walked three but never giving up the big hit P58 clawed back taking a 7-5 lead into the 6th inning when P37 got a single and a triple to cut the lead to 7-6 but Ammons put out the fire in the 6th and  manged to face four batters in the seventh.

P 58 scratched a run home in the second after two outs a walk to Andrew Weatherly and a triple by Linwood Jones.  They score one in the third without a hit.  Finally the fifth they pushed across  four runs on a rbi by Brock Waynick and an error helped move runners all over the place.  Just for good measure P 58 added two more in the 7th to win 9-6. Post 58 is now 5-1 in conference play and as of tonight they have squared their record at 5-5 on the year.

North Carolina in their fifth elimination game during the NCAA playoffs waited to the ninth inning to score against UCLA Friday night and they join N C State in the eliminated category as UCLA dumps Carolina 4-1.  The Tar Heels finish 3rd in the CWS going 2-2.   In what I would  consider a classy move by Mike Fox  he brought in Gryphon Benton Moss in the game to pitch to the last batter for UCLA with two outs.  Realizing that Carolina's second best pitcher during the regular season had not stepped on the mound and looking as if tonight was it for Carolina Moss proceeded to strike out his only batter he face.

UCLA has given up just two runs in three games and will now play Mississippi State for the CWS Championship starting Monday night.

H O B B S

North Carolina got the last laugh on N C State at the College World Series and they did it on the back of former Rocky Mount Gryphon pitcher Hobbs Johnson.  Johnson pitching the game of his career goes eight and one third innings allows five hits strikes out six but only allowed two runners to reach base with a walk.

Mike Fox let the cat out of the bag during his TV interview where he stated that Johnson to that point in the fifth inning when the between innings interview occurred that Johnson had thrown nothing but fast balls all game.  Late in the eighth inning TV used a stat at the time when Johnson was nearing 120 pitches for the game that all 120 of them had been between 87-92 miles per hour.  To say the least a masterful gem  for Carolina and Hobbs Johnson.

Carolina scratched two runs off Carlos Rodon  who was a surprise starter in the game  in the first five innings but put the game away scoring one in the eighth and four in the ninth to win 7-0. Mike Fox gave Hobbs the ball in the ninth to get a complete game shutout but two back to back hits after one out doomed the complete game idea.  North Carolina has no time to gloat as they will be right back on the Omaha baseball diamond Friday night taking on UCLA a team they have to beat Friday and if they do that beat them again Saturday night just to win this bracket.

Mike Fox could come back with Kent Immanuel who for most of the season was Carolina's ace but during the NCAA has seemed tired.  Fox could come back with another former Gryphon Benton Moss who has yet to pitch in the CWS.  Carolina lives to play another day sending N C State home to Raleigh where the WolfPack will finish fifth in the College World Series.

The weather forecast seems to look favorably on Coleman Pitt Post 58 getting two games in Friday night as they host Windsor.  First pitch will take place about five at Legion Field.

Can't Get Much Bigger

Maybe if State and Carolina were meeting in the Final Four in basketball it would be considered bigger.  Since it has never happened on the basketball court or in a BCS football game tonight's College World Series  game in Omaha Nebraska is the ultimate of college sports games between the two biggest rivals in North Carolina.  Just Maybe Duke -North Carolina in basketball would be bigger and yes they did meet one year in the NIT semi's but never on the NCAA stage.

What is at stake tonight is a years worth of ragging because for the loser tonight they pack up Friday morning and come back to RDU Airport while the other will try to play at least one more game. The winner still has the hope of winning the National Championship in College Baseball while the loser will have to hear all about what the other did to send you home.  I hope for who ever wins it is a game of we did the right thing at the right time to win.  I hope we don't have another wild throw to first starts the down fall for the loser.  The burden for any player out there spilling his heart to win for his team making a error and becomes a goat is a life time anchor to drag around for the rest of your life.

Coleman Pitt Post 58 will try again Friday night to play  a double header with Windsor which is a conference game.  Between cancelling games and rain outs Post 58 still has 12 conference games to play by the fourth Of July.  Some of those rain outs are still being looked at to find open dates.  Don't be surprised if the way this season has gone to play one team on a Saturday at noon and play anther team at 7pm to get all the games in.  That's the way this season has been.  If you add all the cancellations with the rain outs P58 who stands at 3-5 on the year has lost more games than played.

All of the high schools in the area have had graduations and school is over until mid August.  Some of those students that graduated are searching jobs that will become what they do for the rest of their lives.  Some have found summer jobs waiting for opening day of colleges where they will go to get more education to prepare them for their future.  Still others while getting more education will attempt to play sports in college.  What follows is a list of those from Rocky Mount High School that I know of that will play sports in college.  If I have left someone off please send me a comment so we can add them to the list.  This list is based on them getting at least some scholarship money to play what ever sport they are in.  This does not include those who will walk on in college.

Brandy Pittman  Winston Salem State  Cheer Leading
Michael Hines  Livingstone  Football
Mason Hines North Carolina A&T Football
Michael Gainey Jr.( MJ)  Newport News Apprentice Basketball
Kelsey Daniels New Port News Apprentice  Basketball
Kasey Cooke  Western Carolina   Soccer
Evie Hunter  North Carolina Wesleyan   Volleyball
Jeremy Johnson  High Point  Baseball
Spenser Ramsey North Carolina Wesleyan  Baseball
Ben Winstead  Guilford College Football
Ahmad Harrell  North Carolina A&T   Football
Ty'Ais Cooper  Methodist College  Basketball
J'Kyra Brown  East Carolina Basketball

NBA Basketball Finals

I did not watch any of the NBA finals at all until the completion of the N C State- UCLA baseball game was over.  I was tempted to turn during the commercials to watch but this is the College World Series and my team is playing, I ain't turning away.

Once the baseball game ended I saw the last fifty seconds of the regulation and all of the over time and in that almost six minutes every thing I need to know as to why I can't stand to watch the NBA any more was front and center.  Yes, it may go down in the history of NBA basketball as one of the greatest games ever but not for me.

There was the drive by LeBron when Danny Green stripped the ball away from him but on the replay Lebron threw out his hand and pushed off driving to the basket.  The replay showed Danny Green despite being pushed away did a great defensive job and the ball went off Lebron.  Why was there any replay at all  Lebron had an offensive foul and the ball should have gone to The Spurs any way.

Then with under ten seconds to play Nanu Ginobili took a half a dozen steps driving to the basket and no call.  Yes there were screams for a foul but the foul never came until step four.  The NBA has become Professional Wrestling, entertainment not basketball.  Thursday night I will not watch one minute of the NBA seventh game.  It doesn't hurt that State-Carolina will be on another channel but I wouldn't watch it if it was the only channel on Thursday night.

There was plenty of chatter after Trey Turner missed out on the home run that would have won the game for the Wolfpack last night  of the stadium being too large.  Please don't do one thing to the stadium.  Ever since, three years ago that College Baseball lightened up the baseball bat College baseball has gotten back to playing baseball.  I use to hate to see a starting pitcher still in the game in the 7th inning with the score 9-8.  The old bat was going to produce runs now it is back to the team that best executes wins.  That is the way the game is suppose to be played. 

We have come down to just maybe the most exciting event ever played by two teams that call North Carolina home.  North Carolina and N C State will play a losers bracket game to see who can beat UCLA twice and if you can do all that play again next week a two out of three game series against the other bracket. As well as both of these teams have played this year it is sad to think one will lose and the other will still be alive even though they are on life support.

Rocky Mount High's Hobbs Johnson will pitch for Carolina.  If you remember way back during the ACC Tournament I suggested that I wanted both Benton Moss and Hobbs to pitch late in their games with the score tied and for State to win it  after they were out of the game.  I am to the point now that I want either State or Carolina which ever one can win it all to win Thursday's game.  I do believe which ever one wins Thursday night still is as good as anyone left and can still win it all.  Let's go  win the CWS -ACC.

Legion Can't Complete Before Rain

The double header of two seven innings games took a detour during the first game as Post 58 and Albemarle Post 84 play seven plus innings and were tied 4-4 when the bottom fell out and it didn't take but about ten minutes before the field was flooded.  Here's is now the problem.  When can both teams match up this late in the season to get these two games in.  There is less than three weeks to go in the regular season and Post 58 still has nine scheduled games to play and there is still a need to make up a rain out with Kinston.  Time and available days are running out.  I guess the way this season has gone, this is just another I can't believe this season moment.

Post 58 could collect only five hits while they held P84 to only four.  Seemed as if neither team could win the game.  Brock Waynick had two hits for post 58 while Abel Hernandez, Nick Vester and Chase Roupp had the others.  Adam Bayless started on the mound gave way to Pascal Ammons and Cody Smith  got P58 through eight innings.  When ever the game is resumed P58 will come to bat in the bottom of the eighth.

North Carolina got from Trent Thornton today what whey have not gotten from a starting pitcher almost this entire post season innings.  Thornton gives the Heels seven strong innings and he got help from Chris McCue  in the eighth and ninth innings as North Carolina survives to play another day at the College World Series.  The Heels beat LSU 4-2. 

Brian Holberton got Carolina off on the right foot with a two run homer and Colon Moran added another run in the third and Carolina plays State again Thursday night at the College World Series.  LSU who many thought including myself as the best team in the CWS is out going home with two losses.

I don't think too many people thought there would be many runs scored in the State- UCLA game and it wasn't.  State got some bad luck in the third after they had taken a 1-0 lead and over throw of home hit off the base of the brick wall behind home plate and bounced right straight at the catcher who was chasing the wild throw and he was able to get State's second run of the third inning out at home.

The eighth inning which was State's big chance failed after a sacrifice bunt was not executed and Trey Turner hit a ball to the wall which would have tied the game but it didn't since the runner never got to third on the sacrifice.  UCLA beats State 2-1 to drop State to the losers bracket with Carolina and they will meet up again Thursday night at 8pm.  Mike Fox announced after the game this afternoon that Hobbs Johnson would be on the mound for the Tar Heels.

Just Sunday had been the biggest sporting event ever between State and Carolina and now that will be topped as one of these teams will be knocked out of the tournament while Thursday winner gets a shot to beat UCLA twice.