The Playoffs Begin

Tonight the North Carolina area semi finals got underway all across North Carolina in American Legion baseball.  Rocky Mount Post 58 who earned a third seed in Area One Western division semi finals traveled to Apex the team that was number two in the division.  Both teams have been off since they both earned byes in the first round for a week now.

Now that we are in the playoff we must note that Coleman Pitt had a winning record 8-6 this season with one of the youngest teams in the state.  We have on our roster three rising juniors who should be junior legion and not one returning from college on our roster.  Apex our host tonight has five returning college player.  In essence we are a team of 16 and 17 year olds for the most part taking on 17 and 18 year olds.

Cameron Taylor took to hill for Coleman Pitt and got into the sixth inning before he ran into serious trouble.  He goes 5 2/3 innings giving up six runs all earned and eight hits.  Noah Shrock pitch 1 2/3 giving up one hit and Forest Bell pitched the ninth.

Post 58 took a 1-0 lead in the second on a lead off Noah Shrock single, a Forest Bell single a wild pitch and an error at second.  The lead was short lived as Apex scored twice on a walk,double and sac fly. P 58 retook the lead in the third when Colby Carter Walked, Logan Pearce line a double across the third base bag and a ground out by Tyler Barrett scored one and the second came home on a Shrock single.

The score stood 3-2 until the bottom of the sixth when Apex scored four times on four hits.  Nothing crossed home after that but  post 58 had their shot.  The eighth they had runners on first and second when John Michael Kelly sent what looked like a hit toward second but the defensive play of the game by their second Baseman knocked the ball down and scooped a throw to second and 58 was denied.   Final Apex 6 Rocky Mount three.

Noah Shrock had three hits and Logan Pearce two led the night.    Jake Isbell pitched 8 innings for Apex giving up the nine hits but only two earned runs.  Game two is Saturday night in Rocky Mount at 7pm.  From about the fourth inning on the skies threaten rain but it was two outs  in the ninth before there was even lightening in the distance.  Never one drop of rain all night.  Got back home and the lights were out coming in by the Community College and looked like a rough night here.

Other Area One day playoff action Friday night
Garner 3. Cary 0  Garner leads 1-0 in games
Apex 6 Rocky Mount 3 Apex 1-0 in games
Wayne Co 11 Wilson 5 Wayne Co leads 1-0 in game
Pitt Co 6 Kinston 3. Game suspended by rain

Legion Starts Round Two

Coleman Pitt Post 58 baseball team will start round two tonight after having a bye in the opening round as Cary beat Durham 10-0  Thursday after beating Durham 2-1 Wednesday in round one to advance to play the top seed Garner tonight.  While Garner #one will host Cary#four Rocky Mount will be heading to Apex to take on Post 124 in the 2/3 match up.

Coleman Pitt and Apex split during their two regular season games with each winning at home.  It was more difficult for Post 58 to win at home as both teams struggled for 12 innings until Logan Pearce hit brought home the winning run 3-2.

Apex had little trouble with the Post 58 pitching in Apex scoring 16 runs in seven innings.  The good news was Rocky Mount hitting did get six runs on their own so they did show ability to score runs.  Both teams will be fully rested as play begins at 7pm in Apex.

Game two will be played Saturday night at Legion Field and a third game for sure will be necessary as this is a 3 out of 5 series.  Back to Apex Sunday and if needed back in Rocky Mount on Monday.  If it goes five games a third trip will be required on Tuesday afternoon.  This schedule is of course pending the weather.

The Eastern Division also begins tonight as the top team Pitt County will host Kinston who this week beat Ahoskie twice to secure the four seed .  The 2/3 match up will have Wilson traveling to Wayne County as the east division will be playing their 3 out of five at the same time as the Western a Division.

I think the baseball game Sunday night might be the best thing that has ever happened to Major League Baseball.  ESPN coverage was excellent with all the tid bits of information about the base and those that defend our country there.

There are rumors after seeing the success that baseball had that the NBA all star game may be moved to Fort Bragg. This would punish Charlotte and North Carolina for the non action by the general assembly to change HB2. Now that the NBA has dug themselves in a hole telling a state what they needed to do.  A business telling a state what their laws should be.

The NBA can move the game to Fort Bragg Federal Property and if course the U S military has no such rule as HB2.  I think it is funny where we all do what we want that is convenient to us.  As you know the military has a no God in the military these days and yet in the seventh inning of the baseball game everyone in the stadium sang God Bless America.  I don't think the NBA can build a building big enough to have such an extravaganza in such short time.  They will lose millions of dollars.  We all know that money will win out in the end.

Blake Helms Make Summer All Star Team

2015 graduate of Rocky Mount High School Blake Helms has made the 2016 Carolina-Virginia Collegiate All Star game.  This summer Blake is playing for Fuquay Varina Twins.  So far this summer he has pitched six times pitching 29 innings and has allowed only two earned runs which is a outstanding .061 earn run average.

You may recall Blake pitched for Post 58 in the summer of 2014 but when 58 failed to field a team in 2015 he moved over and pitched in Wilson Post 13.  Last spring Helms played at Barton In Wilson and his age would have allowed him another summer of Legion which would have put him back in Wilson since they held his rights of where to play after he played for Post 13 last summer.  His great spring in Barton drew the attention of those filling the rosters of summer league teams and he winds up in Fuquay and an All Star.

The All Star game will be played on July 10th at Lenoir Rhyne College in Hickory.

They did get game one of the 4/5 game in Area one eastern division on Tuesday night.  Kinston went to Ahoskie and won 9-2 to take a 1-0 lead in the best of three series.  Game two was  played Wednesday night in Kinston and Kinston won 8-7 to win the series while in the western division got game one in Wednesday night with Cary beating Durham 2-1.  Remember round two starts Friday and unless one team wins two straight or if they split then the winner of game one advances.

It seems that there is no such thing as off season any more.  7 on 7 football, travel league baseball, soccer, Lacrosse, and even basketball.  There is one week each year called a dead period and that is this week.  July 4th through the 10th no coaches should have practice with member of his respective team.  The lone week off in the middle of summer.

The third game of Brian Goodwin's three games in Durham the Bulls won their first of the series.  Brain was 0-3 with an RBI.  The three game series he was 1-9, in four walks three runs scored with and RBI.  They start four games in Norkfolk through Sunday and then Brian heads to Charlotte to the International League All Star game July 13th.

Legion Playoffs soggy

Area One American Legion playoffs were to begin last night in both the eastern and western division.  Tuesday-Wednesday and Thursday the four and five seeds were squaring off in a two out of three playoff.  The Eastern front those games will be Kinston  traveling to Ahoskie in game one. Kinston hosting Ahoskie Wednesday and if needed back in Ahoskie Thursday.  The four/ five game out west is Cary the five seed at Durham for game one, game two in Cary and if needed game three back in Durham.  I do know that Cary and Durham were rained out Tuesday so Wednesday night's game is vital for the winner.  So far I have seen no score of the Kinston Ahoskie game.

Those two winners will then tangle with the tops seeds in each division.  East that's Pitt County who will host the Ahoskie/Kinston winner in game one.  The western division number one Garner will host the Cary/Durham winner.  These games will start Friday night.

Since these first round games are Tuesday through Thursday and the second round starts Friday that leaves no rainout dates in these 4/5 games.  If there should be a one game all tie with a rainout involved then the team that wins game one will advance.  That would throw Ahoskie and Durham as the two home teams in game one of those two out of three series with home field advantage in more ways than one.  You would think being the higher seed they should be better that the five seeds.  Add home to that an any advantage should always go to the home team having any advantage in any series.
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The other semi final series also starts Friday night in the east Wayne County Host Wilson while in the west division Apex will provide the home field against Rocky Mount. This is a three out of five series  so the road team Friday will host Saturday back and forth until one has won three or if rain plays a factor the winner of game one  advances if no one wins three by the start of the Area one finals.  The weather is suppose to be steamy right on through the middle of next week so steamy most of the time brings storms.

Syracuse beat the Durham Bulls for the second night in a row and Brian Goodwin went 1-3 with a run scored.  The last couple of weeks Syracuse has used Trea Turner in centerfield with Brian playing left or right.  If I were a betting man I would say that Trea Turner is close to being called up to the Washington Nationals and will play outfield and infield. A player that can play multiple positions is more valuable than one that only plays the outfield.

It didn't take long to decide.  Hunt High School has picked Jon Smith the Hunt baseball coach to take over as athletic director and baseball coach.  The new football coach is Keith Bynum who for the past 17 years has been a coach in the Hunt Football program.  They take over for Stevie Hinnant who retired a couple of weeks back.

I reported maybe a month ago that the job of baseball coach at Nash Central was open.  Once Tony  Guzzo retired at Christmas Willie Langley was named interim baseball coach.  It was a formality but Langley is now officially the head baseball coach at Nash Central.

Hobbs Johnson Cut

We reported one day last week that Hobbs Johnson had been released by the Milwaukee Brewers.  Unlike the majors when everything that happens is on some kind of report where we know everything that happens to them that is not the case in the minors.

This season the Brewers were trying to convert Hobbs to a short reliever and he went many days between appearances.  Now that the news is out I have found where he has been on the seven day disabled list three different times this season.  He had won one game without a loss.  He pitched in 16 games totaling  25.1 innings.   His ERA was 6.04 with 19 strikeouts.  Here is where he was having such a hard time.  He walked 20 batters.

Any short reliever comes into the game most of the time when another pitcher is in all kinds of trouble with men on base.  A left hander Hobbs lived off the strikeout in the dirt but 20 walks in 25 innings tells me he was putting at least one hitter every inning on base by walk.

Now that I have seen the three trips to the injured list and the high walk ratio it seems that the Brewers have decided if he does have an arm issue that it is not one that can be fixed by surgery or they are not willing to gamble it can be fixed  at their expense.  That is the life in the minor leagues.  If you have made the majors then the big clubs are going to pay for everything to make players well.

After last season Hobbs returned to UNC and I hope  he returns there until something else pops up with another team.  If his arm is ok rememember he was in AA and his year in A ball last year he made the all star team.  It would seem to me the Brewers think his future is so so to just drop him like a hot cake.  If he is hurt many a player reached levels in sports but never got any higher because injury.  In Hobbs case only time will tell.

Rocky Mount product Brian Goodwin is in Durham this  week as his team the Syracuse Chiefs are in town to play the Durham Bulls.  They are there through Wednesday.  Last night Brian went 0-3 with two walks and two runs scored.  The Chiefs are in Norfolk this weekend Thursday-Friday-Saturday and Sunday.  It is as close as he will be to Rocky Mount for the rest of the season.  He is still sitting by the phone waiting for that call to head to the Washington Nationals after the season he is having.  He deserves to get that call.  He needs an injury in the Nationals outfield.

This past Friday night Benton Moss won his fourth game of the season at Port Chatlotte Florida in the Florida State League.  His earn run average is hovering right around four per game.  A ball is more about pitch count than wins and losses as they like to see you get out of your own mess with runners on base and that can cause high run innings.  The reverse of that is if you leave a game ahead the next guy in has a pitch count too and if he has one of those high run innings you might not get a win that you had a chance at when you were taken out of the game.

Collins Cuthrell slumped to below 200 batting average in Florence Kentucky.  He is making a good comeback as he has climbed back to 220 in his quest to find a team interested in signing him to a minor league contract.

Celebrate Freedom

Once I heard that MLB was bringing a baseball game to Fort Bragg I tried to see about tickets but quickly once I heard it was for military only I knew this was a Sunday baseball game I would watch every pitch.  I also attended the Rocky Mount fireworks so that required taping from the point of the ceremonial first pitch in the pregame show until the last pitch of the game.

We are a country of the free.  From 1776 until today people from all over the world want to be a part of what we have this thing called freedom.  Ever since Thomas Jefferson's Declaration of Independence was read to the Continental Congress on July 4th 1776 and to the public on July 8th we have defended our land twice against Britian, fought among ourselves almost 90 years later.  Sent our troops into two wars that were suppose to end all wars.  Seems just in the last 50 years our troops have been all over the world in the name of freedom.

The first time ever an official major league game has been played in North Carolina.  It took place on Tar Heel soil called Fort Bragg which is home to the largest military Post in the world.  Pat and I spent 22 months in Fayetteville and my favorite thing to do was ride on post to Sicily Drop Zone
And watch troops jump as they prepared for what ever they would be called to do.  I have rode by the golf course which was the ball field used last night. That was during a time when there was no gates on post but once 9/11 the world has changed.

I hope you saw the pregame from the ceremonial first pitch to the National Anthem.  If you didn't have a lump in your throat you must not be an American.  Just four months ago the forgotten Post Golf course was turn into a baseball stadium for a night.  All the world was able to see what Fort Bragg means to the world.

If nothing else came from this game it surely told you what America is all about.  A forgotten piece of property in about 120 days was turned into something the entire world could see that America when we put our minds to it we can do almost anything.  It happened right here in our back yard.

We have so many things  wrong with the direction that our country heads at times.  Yet when we want to we can show how great as a nation we can be.  Have a happy and safe 4th.  Still have fireworks tonight at Englewood.  Don't know of too much more can top Sunday night.

God Bless America.

First Year Back

The regular season is over for Coleman Pitt Post 58 after making a comeback to life a year removed from not having enough players to field a team.  We still are faced with the top players in the area still committing to travel ball.  In fact three of the four best pitchers in the county played travel.  One was totally travel while we had two players were part time players for Post 58.   Another was injured and has not played for anybody this summer.   Joe Bell and Hank Jones did everything scheduling wise to let the travel kids play for someone else and that freed up the 16 who dedicated themselves totally to Legion to get Saturdays and Sundays off.  They played just one Saturday this Summer.

Coleman Pitt finished 5-3 in conference play and those three losses were twice to Garner by far a much superior team to us and splitting with second place Apex.  Cary and Durham we went 4-0 and it is easy to tell why we finished in the middle of the pack.  All in all a good return when you think since we did not have a team last year we only had one player with previous Legion experience.  Legion is a step up over high school ball since just about every Legion player was an all conference player for the team he played for.
Just like the high school season hitting was our big bug-a-boo.  Garner and Apex nailed our pitching in our three losses but the most part our pitching was good enough to keep us in most games but once we gave up four runs in any one game we failed to outslug anybody.  This team has three rising juniors in High school next year and three off to college.  Everyone else can come back next season. It would be great if those four top pitchers since they will all be seniors in high school this year if they join Legion full time we just might have the team to beat.

16 players totally committed to Legion for the season.  Josh Daniels Northern Nash did not finish the year because of an injury.  Noah Schrock Nash Central third base, first base and had worked to being our closer on the mound but never could just keep him there needing him for long relief and starter.

John Michael Kelly Nash Central second base, good glove but had a tough summer with the bat.  Tyler Sherrod Nash Central,  3rd, 1st pitcher.  Streaky at the plate but hit one of the two homers hit by P 58 this season.  Cameron Taylor Nash Central was the most reliable starting pitcher all summer.  Remember the first inning of the season?  Take that inning away and he did all you can ask from a pitcher never got the run support needed.

Tyler Barrett Northern Nash, 1st base,outfielder.  Good first baseman for his size.  Had his moments at bat including his homer Friday night.  Will Hedgepeth Rocky Mount, 2nd baseman  good defensive player never found a  batting  stroke all summer.  Forest Bell Rocky Mount,3rd baseman, struggled early with the bat but towards the end of the season was coming around. Logan Pearce Rocky Mount  Shortstop.  Solid at short all season.  This team turned several nice double plays Led by Logan and who ever was at second base at the time.  Second best hitter on the team.

Colby Carter Nash  Central outfielder.  Solid all year in the field.  Had his moments at bat but streaky hitter.  Josh Pittman Rocky Mount centerfielder.  If it was hit in air he had a chance to catch it.  Perfect leadoff hitter who gets on base. Trey Wells Tarboro pitcher,  Only left handed pitcher of the 16 on staff.  Struggled with control.  Probably saw more than any other player 1-A ball and Legion is a big step up.

Dawson Sikes Southern Nash catcher and pitcher.  Split catching duties with Zack Keeter Rocky Mount catcher and pitcher.  Neither player was better than the other to win catching job outright.  Keeter came through with more big hits. Luke Mills Faith Christian.  Outfield, pitcher.   Had moments both batting and pitching. Trevor Mills Southern Nash pitcher.  He like so many others on this team is young and can come back next year a year older and more experienced.

Coleman Pitt got a bye in the first round by finishing third.  Begins Area One playoffs Friday night when they travel to Apex.  They mercy ruled us there.  Saturday night game two will be in Rocky Mount.  Remember that in Legion that first game is sometimes the most important game because if you run into several days of rainouts and fail for any team to win three games within the day limit of the second round the team that wins the first game advances on.