3A Playoffs

Mt. Pleasant is a very good team. I think the reason they are getting a bit overlooked is that they are in East Rowan's bracket. East is as complete a team as you will find on the high school level. I think East wins this game 4 out of 5 times, but Friday could be that one time. The scary thing about the Mustangs is that I think they will be a better team next year than they are this year.

 

AJ plays with CBC Diamond Rats.

 

Sweet Sixteen:

East:
Wilson Fike (18-7) @ Wilson Hunt (22-4)
Eastern Wayne (16-10) @ West Brunswick (19-4)
NE Guilford (22-4) @ Western Alamance (19-5)
Northern Guilford (19-8) @ Chapel Hill (21-5)

West:
Mount Pleasant (17-10) @ East Rowan (26-2)
Charlotte Catholic (21-3) @ NW Cabarrus (20-9)
Patton (22-4) @ Crest (19-4)
Tuscola (20-3) @ Enka (20-6)

 

Haven't heard much about Patton or Tuscola...

 

Tuscola (20-3) @ Enka (20-6)

Better bring a dozen extra balls:
These two teams have 86 homeruns between them. (Enka 50--Tuscola 36)

 

MP has had some "key" injuries during the year and struggled to win some close games. However, they can produce runs in a hurry. We were leading in our conference semi-final game against them 9-3 going into the bottom of the 6th and they scored 5 runs in the next 2 innings off of John J Tuttle, our "ace". They had the tying run at second when the last out was recorded.
Winning at East Rowan will be a challenge, but anything can happen in 1 game. The wierd part of East Rowans playoff run... they have beaten:
SPC #4 Concord, SPC #3 Hickory Ridge and face SPC #2 MP on Friday. If both SPC #1 NWC and ER win tomorrow, they will have faced 4 of the 5 seeds out of the SPC. Maybe next season we could just invite them to our conference tournament!!! LOL!!! East Rowan is a great program, they are not loaded with supreme athletes, just fundamently sound baseball players.

 

Patton finished 2nd in the State

last year while playing 2A. Many on the team played on the Morganton Little League team that went to the World Series back when they were 6th or 7th graders. Talented bunch of kids!

 

high school huddle (www.citizen-times.com/hshuddle) says there's going to be a live blog for this one.

http://blogs.citizen-times.com/blogs/index.php?blog=15&p=10770&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1

Even though Tuscola won this matchup earlier this season, would watch Enka on this one.

 

NWC Wins In A Thriller!!!

Northwest Cabarrus - 5 and Charlotte Catholic - 4
Wow what a game!!! NWC 2B Corey Seager drove in 3 runs, including a 2 run homer and the game winning double with 2 out and runners at 1st and 2nd. Both starting pitchers in this one were outstanding, Daniel Stewart of CC and Rob Bain of NWC. The game was played in the rain, which made it tough for defenders on both sides, but this game was filled with great plays. Both teams OF's made some unbelievable plays that should be on "Sportscenter".
NWC took the lead in the 1st after Will Miller reached on a "E-6" and C. Seager hits a bomb the other way over the LF fence. CC lefty Stewart then composed himself to get out of the inning. NWC lefty Bain was in control early, but after an "E-5" put a runner on, CC scored to cut it to 2-1. NWC used small ball to score a run and take a 3-1 lead into the top of the 6th. Bain recorded 2 outs, then gave up a double followed by a 2 Run homer to even it at 3. The bottom of the 6th saw NWC DH Michael Hagwood lead off with a double and once again used a sac. bunt to advance him to 3rd and then a Sac. fly to take a 4-3 lead into the 7th. CC leadoff reached on an "E-6" and then loaded the bases with 2 singles, with no outs. This is where CC lost this one... after a single to shallow center, they tie the score at 4 but get "gready" and send the runner from 2B also and he's out at the plate, the runner who had advanced to third slips after taking a huge turn and he is out also. So instead of bases loaded with no outs in a tie game, its a runner on 1B with 2 outs, then Bain gets a ground out to 2B to go to the bottom of 7 tied at 4. With runners on 1st and 2nd base with 2 outs, Seager drives a double into the gap in RC to score the winner (just a note 2 probably score on the hit.) Great effort on both sides, well done!!!

 

East Rowan-4 over Mt.Pleasant-2

Standing room only crowd, great game. 2 great coaches, game was a chessmatch in early innings with MP taking a 1-0 lead in 1st inning. After 2 innings, MP already had 4 hard hits but still only 1 run to show for it. ER tied the game in the 4th and it stayed tied 1-1 til the 6th. MP gets 2 leadoff runners on 1st and 2nd, then batter sacrifices both runners (bunt w/2 strikes) moving runners to 2nd/3rd, but MP stranded them, still 1-1. ER comes in bottom 6th and gets 2 solo HR's and 2 doubles to take 4-1 lead going into 7th. MP actually got 2 runners on in 7th with no outs, but could only add 1 more run making final 4-2.

I believe MP actually outhit ER, but MP stranded too many runners. East starting pitcher Thomas Allen (who hadn't pitched in 2 weeks) did start but was pulled in 2nd inning after throwing about 30 pitches, so his injury remains a concern for ER for remainder of playoffs. ER simply once again showed why they have a chance to win it all because of their pitching depth, ER used 4 separate pitchers and they were all as good as the last one.

Recommendation for ER field staff,,,, before next game move the out-of-play lines out to have more standing room. Seating was full and the games are only getting bigger, need more room down the lines for fans.

NW Cabarrus vs. East Rowan in 4th round, 2 locals with history, these teams split 2 games during regular season, should be another great game next Tuesday. Good to see a lot of friends tonight and glad the rain let up some.