On Verge Of Elimination

The State of North Carolina has sent only two teams to the NCAA Regionals in baseball.  North Carolina seated 3rd in the Gainesville Florida region lost to the Number two seed Long Beach State 6-1.  The Heels had eight good innings of baseball but the fourth inning was their down fall giving up all six of  of the runs they gave up.  Tar Heels play at 1pm  today and I think Mike Fox will hand the ball to Benton Moss with hopes of Benton saving the tournament for North Carolina.

Campbell playing in their first NCAA playoff game in 24 years.  Now with school out Campbell offered students who wanted to go to Columbia SC for 40 dollars they could take  a bus tickets to Friday and Saturday's games and one night in a motel.  They got three bus loads to Columbia where they saw their Camels get hit with three South Carolina runs in the first but the Camels hung tough until the bottom of the 8th when they gave up two more before losing  5-2.

I don 't think there were many who dreamed the Camels could beat South Carolina but others  on Friday did the unthinkable like powerhouse Jackson State who beat Louisiana Lafayette 1-0 or that team Kennesaw State who everyone knows who they are beat Alabama 1-0.

The Tar Heels lost by five but guess what they were better that two other ACC teams as Clemson lost to Oregon  18-1.  Glad to see Clemson was ready to play.  Super  Regional hopeful Florida State was shutout at home by Georgia Southern 7-0. Just about every team has one pitcher when he is on can beat anybody.  The question is do they have three?

Virginia is the only ACC team that played like a top team winning 10-1.  Miami slides by 1-0 and Maryland needed two back to back hit batters to win 4-3.  Georgia Tech plays Saturday so the ACC is 500 the first day.

College baseball is just like basketball was this year. 24-30 are legit possible winners of the tournament.  Years ago only about 10 could possibly win the title.  Basketball is ready for a Butler to win the title and baseball is not far behind.

Opening Night Tie

Coleman  Pitt Post 58 opened it's 2014 summer baseball season playing Wayne County to a nine innings plus to a 4-4 tie.  Down 4-2 in the bottom of the ninth P 58 plated two runs to start the extra innings.

Khalil Macklin started the ninth with a base on balls.  Adam Bayless pitch hitting who hasn't played any ball since graduating Rocky Mount Academy in 2013 laced a single to put runners on first and second.  Griffin Parker laid  down a sacrifice bunt putting runners on second and third with one out.  Logan Simonowich from Roanoke Rapids hit a high chopper to third allowed Macklin to score with two outs now with Bayless on third. Blake Helms who had been in the game as relief pitcher for five innings batted for himself and sent a seeing eye single up the middle to tie the game.

Paschal Ammons from East Wake started for Post 58 went the first four innings giving up the four runs on six hits while walking seven batters..  Rocky Mount's Blake Helms came in with two on and no outs and gave a single but put out the Post 11 rally down 4-2.  Helms pitched five plus innings and gave up no runs on six hits while walking only three and with his curve working struck out five.

Rocky Mount took the lead in the second after Macklin singled, Christian Perry walked and Fike's  Griffin Parker doubled to produce a run. Wayne scored twice in the second off a Ryan Faucett two run double.  Noah Parker sac fly scored Wayne Couny's third run in the third and another in the fourth.  Linwood Jones scored P 58 second  run after his fly ball was dropped and Jones scampered to third.  A David Wiliams single put run two on for Post 58.

Post 58 collected only five hits while giving Wayne County 12 on the night.  The top of the tenth Post 11 lead of with a single and a force play created an out when the crowd was stunned when Adam Bayless now playing first base fell to the ground with a seizure.  Rescue was called and after about 30 minute delay Bayless entered the rescue vehicle and at that point Hank  Jones  and the Wayne County coach agree that continuing the game under these circumstances  was fruitless.  Adam Bayless was awake and I don't know of no one there wanted to continue after the 30 minutes of quiet calm that had overtaken the field.

Fell Off Cloud Nine

The Biggest sporting event in Thomas Berry and Britt Johnson's sporting  career has ended.  Lander University where Thomas plays and Britt coaches ended their season Wednesday when they lost at the division II World Series for the second time this week 7-3 to Tampa. It knocks them out of the tournament and they can hang their head high as they will officially finish fifth in the nation. Thomas went 2-4 in the game with a BB and a run scored.

Ten years ago Lander didn't have much of a baseball program until they hired Kermit Smith and in about four years Smith has turned the program into a program if you say Lander everyone in the college baseball world knows where it is.

Since Britt Johnson graduated Rocky Mount high and ECU he has slowly been moving up the coaching ladder first at Nash Central.  He had laid a coaching foundation while coaching Nash County Babe Ruth teams while in high school and college.

Some where when coaches meet other coaches or when other coaches watch other  coaches coach they file it in their memory bank.  I don't know where Britt ran across Kermit Smith but Smith offered Johnson a non paying coaching job at Lander.  It is called paying your dues to get to where you want to be.  This year Britt had a full time top assistant coaching job at Lander and Lander makes all the way to the final eight.  Fifth is the exact position and Britt Johnson had no small part but a Hugh role in Lander rise to cloud nine.

Division II and D3 can be a stepping stone to D1 baseball.  Mike Fox paid his dues at North Carolina Wesleyan and how many times has he taken Carolina to Omaha to the D1 College World Series.  Kermit Smith seems to have IT when it comes to coaching.  He also seems to have IT when he looks for coaches to help him.

This is the first time Lander has landed in the Big Dance of Division II college baseball.  I can guarantee you other colleges have their eyes wide open especially those who might be making coaching changes this year or in the next few years.  Kermit Smith is a hot commodity now in the college coaching world.  If the head man gets a bigger job he will bring along his assistance.  It may not happen this year or next but if a Lander stays a top ten program interest will be high for Smith.

There is always a chance that some smaller school looking for a hot shot assistant could call up Smith and say "Can we talk to you assistant Britt Johnson"?  I don't care who you are if you can coach and can win consistently people will come calling.  Even at 67 years old Coach  K keeps getting pro teams wanting him to their pro team.

Lander today may be disappointed at getting eliminated from the World Series in Cary but their future is bright.  Especially for that assistant coach from Rocky Mount Britt Johnson.   His future may have more  Cloud Nines.

Three Gryphons Make All Conference

The Rocky Mount High Baseball team had three players make the Big East All Conference team.  Forrest  Bell who solidified the shortstop spot this year is joined by Seniors Cody Smith pitcher who at times was a strikeout machine and Ben Yates outfielder who was injured early in the season but finished with a flourish batting.

The Gryphons who finished fifth with a 5-5 record during the regular season and finished 7-12 overall will lose their top two pitchers in Cody Smith and Will Edwards who are both heading to Chowan University to play baseball there next year.

Next year when the high school basketball season  starts  there will be some new rules to get use too. The first one is a good one regarding getting in the lane too soon.  The past you could not get in the lane until the ball made contact with the rim.  This will help referees who have to worry how fast players get in the lane while trying to worry with blocking out with the ball in the air.

The second rule is placing two hands on a player outside of the lane and the third is riding a player by placing a hand on him while coming up the court.  These rules are to give the person with the ball the ability for free movement without defenders all over the ball handlers.

Thomas Berry and Britt Johnson and the Lander Bobcats play at 3pm today in a losers bracket game.  By winning one game in this eight team double elimination tournament they can finish no worse than fifth and at this point in the losers bracket they would have to win four straight days to take the Division II national championship.

Last night the last remaining Big East team playing in the playoffs Fike girls lost the eastern championship to Chapel a Hill 2-0.    Fike was the last standing Big East team playing in spring sports.

The Dreaded Losers Bracket

Lander University pitching spotted Southern Indiana a 5-0 lead by issuing five walks and hit three batters before Lander's come back fell short.  Former Gryphon  Thomas Berry went 0-4 but his final at bat he hit a fly ball caught at the right field wall which allowed base runners on first and second to advance to third and second.  Those two runners were the tying run on third and the lead run on second but Lander failed to push either run across.

Lander falls into the losers bracket game Wednesday at 3pm against Tampa who knocked out Chico State 14-6.  Tampa came into the World Series as the top ranked team in the nation who lead D2 baseball in  scoring.  Lander who came in ranked second in the nation.  The winner will get a shot at Southern Indiana Thursday and if they win that game will have to beat Southern Indiana again Friday before the National Championship on Saturday.

The Tarheels are in along with Campbell but State, ECU and Duke are out of the NCAA D1 baseball tournament which starts Friday.  Carolina heads to Gainesville Florida for a Friday afternoon game against Long Beach St.  Campbell making their first playoff appearance since 1990 plays South Carolina at 7pm Friday night.  Both games can be seen on ESPN3.

How close was it for Carolina?  During the aftermath gossip Carolina was team number 63 of 64 picked while an NC State was four teams short of making the field.

Duke won their 3rd National Championship in Lacrosse in four years beating conference foe Notre Dame 11-9. Duke just six years ago was in the middle of a major scandal but now is the premier lacrosse team in the country.

Thursday night Coleman Pitt Post 58 will open up their baseball schedule for the summer as they host Wayne County Post 11 .  Hank Jones will be the head coach again this season with his top aids being Cameron Ramsey and Colin Cuthrell.  Game time is 7pm at Legion Field on Howell Street.

A Year Late

One year to the day Campbell Baseball had won the regular season Big South with if I remember like a 48-12 season.  During the Big South Tournament they went undefeated until the championship game. The Big South Tournament winner  gets the automatic bid and the Big South tournament regardless of how many losses you have the once beaten team plays the undefeated team in a winner take all final game.  Campbell loss that game and with it went and NCAA bid.

This year as the three seed Campbell lost their first game in the tournament but fought their way to take on the host school Winthrop, Who was the undefeated team this year in the Tournament and Campell turned the trick that killed them last year is sending them to the NCAA tournament this year.

Duke, State, ECU and others are sitting on the edge of their seats today waiting on the NCAA selection show at noon on ESPNU.  A dagger for all teams hoping to get in is that in the Horizon League's Youngtown State who was the sixth seed in a six team tournament and wins the Horizon League bid.  Their record 16-36.  They RPI is near 200 but what their getting in does for any team with 64 or less RPI and  that includes all of the fore mentioned teams just means one less bubble team to get in the tourney.

We now need to start keeping up with the X Man 's stats as the Frontier League opened their season last weekend and Xavier Macklin is playing for the Gateway Grizzlies.  Eight games in X is batting 233 with a home run.

The Frontier League is an Independent league which means all players are playing for themselves not being paid  by a Major League team.  The league pays the players all the same and if any player stands out then they can be scooped up by any team.

Hobbs Johnson lost his latest start for Brevard in the Florida State league and his record stands at 4-5 with 46 strikeouts in 49 innings in 9 appearances.  His ERA is still under Three at 2.94.  His won loss record is not impressive but his performance otherwise is.

Brian Goodwin is hitting 222 in Syracuse for the AAA Chiefs.  It is still early enough that a 0-4 night can drop his average ten points  where a two hit night can make it go up 15 points.

Cousin Lauren Doughtie finished in 56th spot this week which is the third Futures tour tournament in a row where she has cashed a check.  She needs one or two that are top ten money.

Tonight at 5pm Thomas Berry and his teammates at Lander University play in a winners bracket game at the USA Baseball Complex in the NCAA DII World Series. The game is being streamed on NCAA.com.  Look for DII on front page and it should bring up the game.

The Blessings From Baseball

Don and Wanda Johnson and Steve and Cyndi Berry have spent their lives following their three sons through thick and thin that the game of baseball provides.  There has been more ups than downs through their trek of a parent following their children play the game they love.

Between the two families they have been to state little league championships, state championships in Babe Ruth, Regionals in Babe Ruth and even World Series at the Babe Ruth, State High School Championship  and even an American a Legion state championship and last week two of their sons went to the next level when two took part in a regional college baseball playoff.  Saturday another step  in climbing the mountain as two sons have made it to the Division II College World Series in Cary.

Saturday Lander University made their first appearance in the D2 World Series in Cary with Thomas Berry as the teams DH and assistant coach and the third base base coach Britt Johnson.  The Berry and Johnson clans were well represented in Cary as each family took up about three rows a piece of grand parents, aunts and uncles, brother and sisters and of course mama and daddy's.  My guess there were probably 100 or so that call Rocky Mount home there to cheer for our home boys.

Lander took on Chico State from California who is making their ninth trip in the last 18 years to the World Series.  The World Series is being played at the National Training Center at the USA Baseball Complex just about three miles from the end of the south runways at RDU Airport.  The incoming planes were just high enough to not be disturbing.

Lander scores three runs in the bottom of the seventh to take a 6-4 lead and two innings later that would be the final score.  Chico had the tying runs on second and third as the last out was made. This was an intense game with the only distraction being the umpire behind the plate.  He was consistently inconsistent.  Thomas Berry went 0-4 but reached base the hard way with a hit by pitch, while Britt was able to wave home from the third base coaching box five of the six runs.  One scored
on a base on balls.

Lander moves on in the winners bracket for a Monday afternoon  at 5pm game with Southern Indiana.  The Johnson's and Berry's will take away From this tournament the thrill of winning at least one game during the ultimate of their children's baseball lives.  We never know what is around the corner of our lives and neither family may never get the feeling they had at games end knowing that their child won on the big stage of baseball.

What a blessing baseball has been for them  and what a blessing it was for me to be there to share the moment with them. Hope there is more to come.