Southern Collegiate Baseball League

Copperheads and Smokies Split Twinbill

In front of a nice crowd Saturday night, the Ballantyne Smokies hosted the Lake Norman Copperheads in the teams first matchup of the summer. Game one was all Smokies as the took down the Copperheads 11-1. Seth Neely (Spartanburg Methodist) led the Smokies with a 3-4 night including a homerun and a triple. Dan Johnson (Millersville) backed him with a 3-3 night himself. Patrick Kelly (Millersville) got the win for the Smokies going 5 innings striking out four and only allowing one earned run. The Copperheads had 5 hitters with one hit each with Daniel Whitecavage (St. Andrews) having the only extra basehit. D.J. Jauss took the loss for the Copperheads

Game two was a complete role reversal as the Copperheads jumped on the Smokies early and cruised to a 9-2 win. Logan Bible (Virginia Tech) led the way for the Copperheads going 3-4. Joining him in the hit parade were Jon Wall (UNC Pembroke), Brandon Wilkerson (NC A&T), Brantley Smith and Ryan Hodge (Gardner-Webb) each adding two hits of their own. Geoffrey Murphy (Boston College) and Aaron Fossas (Wake Forest) both added their first homeruns of the season in this contest as well. James Fowlkes (Lee University) led the Smokies with a 2B and a 3B. Ryan Gupton (East Carolina) was the winning pitcher going three innings in relief giving up only one hit while striking out three. Lee Trosch took the loss for the Smokies.

The Copperheads return to action tonight at Hopewell as they host the Asheville Redbirds at 7PM.

 

Owls Vs Chaos June 11th Game Cancelled

The Statesville Owls 6/11/12 game against the Chaos has been cancelled due to weather. We will most likely it will be made up as a double header down at Clemson on 7/23/12.
Our next home game will be this Wednesday, June 13th against the Morganton Aggies....Game Time: 7:00 p.m., gates will open at 6:00 p.m.....GO OWLS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

List any promotions that anyone is doing. I know about the Smokies "Cure for cancer," but what else is going on at LN, Statesville and Pineville? Any fireworks this year

 

Ronald McDonald is coming out for July 4th. Haven't seen him in a while! Do you think you could see fireworks from SC?

 

Long ball powers Owls to convincing win over Aggies

On the strength of three home runs, the Statesville Owls blew past the Morganton Aggies 12-4 in Wednesday night’s Southern Collegiate Baseball League game at Statesville High.
Derek Gallello (Charlotte), Bradley Morton (North Carolina) and Daniel Massey (Brown) sent balls over the fence, helping the Owls avenge a lopsided 14-1 loss last week to the Aggies as they improved to 3-4 on the young season.
“Wow,” Owls coach Aaron Bray said when asked about the power display. “We see that in (batting practice) everyday…I’m not sure how long that will stick around, but we’ll take it for tonight.”
Gallello finished with three RBIs, as did Massey.
Statesville led 2-0 after the third but faced a two-run deficit after the top of the fifth inning.
Morganton’s first two batters reached base in the fifth. Former Owl Tripper Crisson, who led off with a single, scored on a wild pitch coupled with a throwing error, and then Andrew Alford belted a three-run homer to left field off Owls starter Hunter May (Pitt Community College), giving the Aggies their first lead, 4-2.
May (Pitt Community College) was pulled in favor of Kevin Sweeney. May threw 4-plus innings, allowing four runs on seven hits and four walks, but he also got himself out of a huge bases loaded jam in the fourth when he retired two straight batters on a strikeout and comebacker to the mound.
Statesville regrouped and surged ahead permanently with a four-run sixth. Jace Whitley’s one-out RBI single trimmed the Aggies’ lead to 4-3. Whitley (Winthrop) finished with two hits and two RBIs.
After Morton reached on an error, Massey crushed the first pitch over the fence in right field for a three-run homer that put the Owls back in front, 6-4.
“Luckily we got behind early, although you won’t see a lot of guys here hang their heads after falling behind,” Bray said. “But the fact that they responded, and the way they did it, I liked that.”
Morganton relieved starter Brian Tuttle in favor of Bradley Carpenter after losing the lead. Tuttle surrendered six runs on five hits, three walks and a hit batter in 5 1/3 innings of work. He struck out four, including the side in the fourth.
Stephen Gilmore (Gardner-Webb) relieved Sweeney after Sweeney issued back-to-back walks to load the bases with two outs in the seventh.
Gilmore fanned Bobby Twitty to end the threat, and then the Owls put the game away in their half of the inning. Gallello and Morton gave the Owls some insurance with a pair of two-out, two-run homers to stretch their lead to 10-4.
The Owls added two more runs in the eighth.
Statesville hosts a doubleheader against the Lake Norman Copperheads on Friday, with the first game starting at 5 p.m.

 

Pineville @ Ballantyne rescheduled for tonight at Ardrey Kell High School at 7:00.

 

Redbirds win in 10 innings over Pioneers

Excellent ballgame last night in Asheville (especially for the Redbirds) as they won in the bottom of the 10th inning. The Redbirds starter began the game a little shaky and the Pioneers took an early 2-0 lead. Redbirds managed to score 1 run in the bottom of the 5th with 2 outs after a single, throwing error and another single. Corey Topa pitched well in relief for the Redbirds managing to strikeout 4 while holding the Pioneers in check. Redbirds manage to score the tieing run in the bottom of the 8th after two singles, a successful steal of 3rd base followed by a sac fly. Things got really interesting then in the bottom of the 9th as the Redbirds managed to load the bases with 0 outs. Pioneers pitcher, Matt High came on and struck out the first 2 batters and then got the 3rd guy to fly out to end the inning with no runs allowed. In the 10th, the Redbirds managed a 1 out double by Tyler Hopkins (Montreat) followed by a run scoring single by Eli Miller (UNCA) to plate the winning run.

 

Copperheads Win on Late Hit

The Lake Norman Copperheads went to Clemson, SC last night to take on the Carolina Chaos in a DH. The first game was a makeup from a previous rain-out. After BP, the rain came hard and fast forcing the two teams to play a single game which started 3 hours after the scheduled start time. The Copperheads jumped out to an early 2-0 lead only to see the lead go away in the 6th, when the Chaos scored two of their own. Aaron Fossas (Wake Forest) came in from 2nd base to pitch with one out and the bases loaded. He got the Chaos to ground into a double play to end the threat. Brandon Wilkerson (NC A&T) and Fossas got the rally started in the 7th with back-to-back singles. With two outs, Geoffrey Murphy (Boston College) double to right to score both runners and give the Copperheads the two run lead. That would be all that Fossas needed to close out the 7th and preserve the Copperheads win.

With the win, the Copperheads improve to 4-2 on the summer and will return to action Friday to take on the Statesville Owls in Statesville. Josh Powell (Coastal Carolina) will make his Copperheads debut and start game 1 followed by game 2 starter Trey Lambert (Liberty).

 

Harris Picks up his Third Home Run against Asheville in the 8-3 win in Game 1

The Ballantyne Smokies won the first game of the doubleheader against the Asheville Redbirds from Ardrey Kell High School by an 8-3 score. The Smokies now improve to 4-0 against the Redbirds so far in the young 2012 season. Brandon Harris just seems to have the Asheville Redbirds number as he went 2-3 with a three run homerun and a grand slam and a career high seven rbi’s the last time he saw Asheville in a 12-4 Smokies victory back on June 8th. Harris picked up his fourth homerun of the year, and his third against the Redbirds in the 8-3 victory with a two run home run in the sixth inning off of Redbirds reliever Dustin Haithcox.
Once again, the Smokies had no problems racking up hits as they not only won the game in the run column, but also out hit the Redbirds nine to five. However, the Redbirds struck first on the scoreboard as they took an early two to nothing lead off of Smokies starter Sean Pope. Asheville scored the first two runs of the game in the top of the 2nd inning as they scored their two runs while bringing six men up to the plate, and only getting one hit. Tyler Hopkins, the Redbirds shortstop, started off the inning with a leadoff double, and was moved to third off the groundout to Sean Pope off the bat of the left fielder Andrew Kirkland. The story of the inning, however, was the two errors in the inning from Cody Blood and Sean Pope, the Smokies’ starter. Wiliam Head sent a grounder to third after Kirkland grounded out, and it took a bad hop for Cody Blood, and it allowed Tyler Hopkins to score from third base, and Head would later score off the error from Smokies’ pitcher Sean Pope off the bat of the extra hitter Kyle Allred. The Smokies would respond in their half of the second inning scoring one run off of two walks from the Redbirds starter Chip Helton, as Cody Blood picked up his second rbi of the season with the sacrifice fly rbi to right scoring Weston Lawing, to make it a 2-1 Asheville lead.
Ballantyne broke open the game to take the lead for good and did not look back after they scored five runs in the bottom of the third inning. Smokies sent nine men to the plate and scored the five runs off of four hits, and roughed up starter Chip Helton. The inning was started by Trevor Fabing and Josh Greene, who picked up back to back singles to start the third. Fabing advanced to third on the Josh Greene single as the California native picked up his first stolen base of the season advancing to second base before Greene picked up the single. After the back to back singles and stolen base by Fabing, runners were on the corners for Brian Holberton who walked. Fabing would score off the balk from Chip Helton, and Seth Neely then walked after Holberton to load the bases before Brandon Harris extended his hitting streak to eight games hitting a two rbi double, scoring Josh Greene and Brian Holberton. Neely would then advance to third off the double from Harris, and advanced home as Weston Lawing was intentially walked and the ball four pitch went over the glove of the Redbirds catcher Nicolas Collazo for a pass ball, which easily scored Neely from third. The final blow in the inning for the Smokies would come from the rbi single for Basen on a squeeze pay, scoring Brandon Harris from third base, who would score the final two runs of the game for the Smokies in the bottom of the fifth with his fourth home run of the season, a two run shot over the right field fence.
Sean Pope got the win for the Smokies, his first of the year, after he went four innings, only allowing three hits, two runs, one walk, and a game high five strikeouts. Carrlos Barreras and Andrew Mauldin went three innings from he Ballantyne bullpen only allowing one earned run, a solo home run in the sixth inning by the Redbirds third baseman Bryan Everhart. Chip Helton took his first loss on the year for the Redbirds. With the win, the Smokies improve to 6-2 on the season, first place in the Southern Division, while the Redbirds fall to 3-5. The Smokies will be back in action for game two of the doubleheader, where Shane Carey, the senior from Saint Joseph’s University will get the call for his second start of the season. You can Listen Live to the game at www.ballantynesmokies.com.

 

Fowlkes Walks Off the Redbirds to complete Doubleheader Sweep

James Fowlkes picked up the walk off single in the bottom half of the seventh inning to give the Smokies the 5-4 victory in game two of the doubleheader Friday night from Ardrey Kell High School. The Smokies swept their second doubleheader of the season, and both coming at the hands of the Asheville Redbirds. The Smokies now improve to 4-0 against Asheville this season, and own an SCBL best record of 7-2.
Game two of the doubleheader was a pitchers dual through the first three innings of the game between two quality left handers, Shane Carey and Tyler Wilson for the Redbirds. Carey and Wilson both combined for one hit and six strikeouts through the first three innings, and Wilson did not allow a hit to the Smokies until the bottom of the fourth inning. The Smokies finally got to the southpaw out of Milligan College in the bottom of the fourth scoring the first three runs of the ballgame. Brandon Harris got two of the three runs driven in in the fourth inning with his first triple of the year, after the right fielder Nicolas Collazo lost the ball in the sun. Harris scored Brian Holberton and Seth Neely, who reached after both men were hit by a pitch in back to back at bats. Harris would then score from the rbi single from Shane Basen, picking up his fourth rbi of the year.
Asheville would waste no time tying up the game as the Redbirds answered right back tying the game in the top of the fifth inning, off of two hits and two walks. Andrew Kirkland and Nicolas Collazo were both issued one out walks from Shane Carey and Spencer Toth, the Redbirds catcher, would load the bases with a single. William Head would pick up his first rbi of the game as he reached on a fielders choice that scored Andrew Kirkland from third. The sixth man up in the inning, Cody Reid, would tie the game with his two rbi single that scored Nicolas Collazo and William Head. Smokies would reclaim the lead in the fifth inning off an rbi single from Brian Holberton, scoring Josh Greene who lead off the inning with a single.
The Smokies would take their 4-3 lead to the top half of the seventh inning with Ben Keane out on the hill, looking to pick up his second save of the year, but the Redbirds had other plans. Asheville tied the game in the seventh inning off of Ben Keane thanks to an rbi double from Spencer Toth, which scored Nicolas Collazo from third base, who reached on a two out walk from Ben Keane. Toth’s double was his first double and first rbi of the season for Asheville. Keane was able to get out of the seventh after he got William Head to pop up to Shane Basen at short.
Ballantyne got off to a good start in their half of the seventh with Brantley Rumford picking up a line drive base hit to right off of reliever JM Spangler, giving Brantley his fifth hit of the season. Josh Greene would move Rumford over with a beautiful infield bunt that Greene beat out at first base and allowed Rumford with good speed to move to third base. That would be key play of the game as all the Smokies need was a deep fly ball to score the winning run. James Fowlkes, who hit a 2-1 fastball in the left center field gap to score Rumford from third, gave the Smokies the walk-off victory and complete the doubleheader sweep of the Redbirds.
Each team finished with the same number of hits they had in game one with the Redbirds having five and the Smokies finishing with nine. The win went to Ben Keane, picking up his first of the year, and JM Spangler took his second loss of the year for the Redbirds. Shane Carey took the no decision as the left hander went 4 2/3 innings, giving up two hits, three runs, three walks, and a game high five strikeouts. Tyler Wilson, Carey’s counterpart, went four strong innings, allowing five hits, three earned runs, with four walks and four strikeouts. The Smokies were lead by Josh Greene who went 3-3, and Shane Basen who picked up his first two hit game of the 2012 season. The Smokies now improve to 4-0 against the Redbirds and 7-2 overall, and in first place in the Southern Divison. Asheville now drops to 3-6 on the year and in third place in the Southern Divison. The Smokies will be back in action tomorrow afternoon with a doubleheader against the Lake Norman Copperheads from Hopewell High School starting at 5 p.m. Copperheads and Smokies split the doubleheader last Saturday from Ardrey Kell High School with the Smokies winning 11-1 in game one, and the Copperheads taking game two, 9-2. Patrick Kelley and Lou Trosch will get the starts tomorrow against Lake Norman for their second starts of the year. You can catch both games of the doubleheader starting at 5 p.m. by Listening Live at www.ballantynesmokies.com