BATTLE OF THE BORDER.... IT'S HERE

After 6 months of planning and about one full month of working from 7am-11pm, The Battle of the Border Showcase is here. Thanks to everyone that has provided help and insight to make this event a reality.

We feel like we have selected a great group of travel and showcase baseball players to compete and our talent showcase on MOnday morning has lined up quite nicely.

If you would like to see some of these outstanding travel ball players from our area in action , come on out to Winthrop University on Monday and Tuesday. I believe the talent will be impressive and hopefully you will have a great time.


Game times are Monday at 4:30 and 7:15 and Tuesday at 4:30 and 7:15

The final game on Tuesday will be the last chance to see the class of 09 superstars in action locally.


For all the information you need, visit


www.battleofthebordershowcase.com

 

first game is in the books

NC middle school allstars win over SC. 11-6

What a great event and opportunity for these young kids. Some great play, some great hits and a good time.

 

First Final

NC Future Stars win 11-4, breaking it open a 6-4 game with 5 runs in the top of the 9th. NC's Jake Fincher (Butler HS/South Charlotte Panthers) took home Most Outstanding Player honors, going 2-2 with a 2 run double and a triple. Also, NC's Grayson Atwood (Mt. Pleasant HS/Hurricanes North) hit an absolute bomb into the trees above Winthrop's double-decker scoreboard.

 

shot still going...

I think Atwoods shot is still going...I bet it gets the attention of USC and Clemson as it flies over.

 

Congrats Jake

I am happy for Jake Fincher. I think he is a real player. I was surprised when he did not get selected on the initial roster, I believe Grayson was a late addition as well. Glad to see the moons lined up and they were able to show off their talents. Good job!!!

 

they can play....

Fincher's triple was a rocket to straight away center.....he also looked sharp at SS and made some nice throws that showed off his arm. Atwood's home run was a mammoth shot. The 370' sign is right under the scoreboard which sets off behind the outfield wall. The scoreboard is a large double decker board. I was watching the ball leave the park and I was kind of assuming it would arc downward and clear the wall and that would be it. I was amazed when it entered the trees just left of the top of the scoreboard. I would guess it would have easily carried another 100' past the wall if it were unobstructed, so that makes 470' which sounds totally crazy, but 100' is just a little longer than a basepath and I can throw a ball behind my back that far....so who knows? I am convinced 470' is a realistic projection.

This was a great event and I expect the competition amongst players to gain a roster spot will be even more intense next year. The rosters were full of great players this year (many signees, early commits and MLB draftees), but I think next year the roster spots will be even harder to secure. The promoters sure delivered on their promise that the stands would be full of scouts.

Worth noting....the hitting in the Middle School game was truly amazing...ten runs in the first inning with balls being driven all over ballpark.....

 

Congrats on Great Event

Congrats to the folks that put this together - look forward to this becoming a great tradition.

Getting this together the first time is the hardest part - you had to invent everything from scratch. Next year can build on this year and this event will get even better.
Note: Fire the guy in charge of weather !! But the full rainbow was a nice touch...

Lets throw some gas on the fire - next year lets hope S.C. can step it up !! No wonder the Tar Heels are always in Omaha while the Gamecocks are watching on TV !!

 

This event was billed as “The Battle of the Border” and not the “Battle of the Carolinas”. To suggest it was anything other than that is just untrue. Quite honestly it shouldn’t even have been a contest to start with.

The NC-Meck squad has a huge advantage going in to this event over the SC-York County squad. There are only 7 high schools in York County and only 1 other 4A school in the surrounding Chester or Lancaster County, being Lancaster HS, which didn’t have a representative included on the 09 senior team.

On the other hand there are 20+ public high schools in Meck-County alone plus another dozen or so private schools. Additionally how many high schools are there in Cabarrus, Rowan, Union, Gaston, and Cleveland counties? Of those how many are 4A schools on top of it?

All things considered, I thought the SC-York County 09-Senior team faired very well. Reviewing the roster the SC-YC team, it lists 4-D1, 6-D2, and 3-JC players on the roster. Combined this is less than the NC-Meck’s squad of D1 players alone. Heck the NC-Meck team could probably field a stronger team than the SC-YC team with the players that didn’t make the NC-Meck squad.

Quite frankly I was very disappointed in the performance of several of the NC-Meck high profiled D1 players. This game should’ve been a mercy rule game in favor of the NC-Meck squad. Give the SC-York County team some credit for competing and making a game of it.

As far as the “Future Stars” game, how many of the NC-Meck players have already committed to a college? Zero for the SC-YC “Future Stars”.

If you really want to compare the current NC/SC prep stars, review the results of the NC/SC Select Team games played last weekend in Myrtle Beach and Coastal Carolina. I believe the teams split that two game series. That should be a much more accurate comparison between the two.

As long as the format for this event remains the same, the NC-Meck team will always have a huge advantage over the SC-York County teams. It will be difficult for the SC-YC teams to “step it up” when they are forced to compete on an uneven playing field.

I’m not complaining and I appreciate the organizers for putting on an outstanding event but I do believe one should be fair when bashing the SC-YC teams for not “stepping up”.

PlayLaughLive……You started the fire!

 

All one has to do is to follow the Mavericks Showcase team to see that SC is not lacking in talent....and the Diamond Devils historically are one of the best teams in the country.

GDG made some excellent points. I don't know how they can make this tournament more competitive facing the disproportionate amount of schools between the two areas.

Perhaps next year they can do one between North vs South, with South to include upper SC schools....and North is any school north of greater Charlotte.

Kudos to Tripp for putting this together so quickly and having it turn out so well. I think the big winners were the middle school kids getting an opportunity to play on a college field. With Middle schools losing their programs it remains to be seen how that will work out.

I hope everyone had a good time...and they do it again next year.

 

Before this goes the wrong way, I want to clear a few things up

No doubt the Charlotte team has more to draw from, we learned that early going in and we extended the boundaries as much as we could for SC. We had kids from some other schools like Wren, Lewisville, Clover, Chester, Blythwood, Great Falls, etc...

Next year, we will extend even more if need be.

I appreciate your comments, and I can assure you that anytime I do something, I look, listen and learn and come back better the next time. One key element to remember is with the nomination process next season, people will now know the value of this event and we will get a ton more applications and draw on some very good talent

I personally thought each game was competitive, the 9th grade game was superb with a 2-1 score

The future Stars game was great,,, we had 25 colleges in the stands for that game and that is amazing! Next year, we will have 2 future Stars games for all the college coaches to see.


Another side note -- MOP for the Senior Games came from SC,,, Gaither Baumgardner struck out 3 studs on the NC team, 3 up , 3 down, he was something special, USC Upstate has a heck of a player coming their way!

Softball has 2 chances Tuesday night to put SC in the win column and I know they have some great players as well. The SC teams have a lot of kids from outside York County, include 3 or 4 from Buford.


We are learning, and I can promise you that next year will be an incredible celebration for the best travel ball players in the area.

I will post a lot more soon with all kinds of thoughts and news, I am tied down on softball at the moment...

Thanks to all that supported the event.