Ardrey Kell VS South Caldwell

For what seems like the same song and dance every May, the South Caldwell Spartans again find themselves one game out of the Western Regional championship series, when they host Charlotte power Ardrey Kell tonight at Spartan stadium.

The Spartans come into the game with an impressive record of 22-4, but unlike the great Spartan teams of 2005-2008, this team has shown the propensity to drop games against teams it’s used to beating.

For the first time since SCHS pitching great Madison Bumgarner’s freshman season, the Spartans did not claim the Northwestern 4A regular season title. SCHS fell twice to Watauga and facing an opportunity to clinch a tie for the league crown on the last night of the regular season, inexplicably lost at home to Alexander Central, the leagues 6th place team.

However Coach Jeff Parham rallied the troops and preceded to rally off his fourth consecutive NW4A tournament title, by knocking off number one seed Watauga 5-0 in Boone behind UNCG commit Cody Poarch.

With the Spartans finally regaining their swagger of old, they found themselves in the best seat the Northwestern 4A offers for the State playoffs, the number 2 seed. South quickly dispatched of a overmatched Berry Academy team 23-0 in the first round in Sawmills.

In round two SCHS began it’s trip through the prestigious Southwestern 4A conference by dispatching South Mecklenburg 5-4 on a walkoff single in the bottom of the 7th again at Spartan stadium.

Facing the toughest test of the 2009 playoffs, round three brought a slight chance of rain and plenty of SCHS fans out to the ballpark for a battle against SW4A tournament runner up Butler. The Spartans put a fast run on the board in the first and then Poarch made it hold up by striking out 13 including Tyler Tewell (ASU commit) in the 7th.

Tonight’s game should be a classic pitchers duel between Ardrey Kell’s Alex Wood and SCHS Cody Penny (UNC Commit). Penny, a tall right hander that remind you of the Major League pitcher Brad Penny, rely’s on locating the fast ball and making you chase curve out of the zone. Don’t be fooled into thinking he can’t throw the curve for strike though.

Runs will be at a premium tonight in Smallville, USA, and the difference could end up being defense and while South Caldwell has gotten better of late, their Achilles heal still remains their ability to make it through games errorless. In the two regular season games against Watauga, the Spartans committed 9 errors, leading to a combined 7 runs to be credited as unearned on SC pitching. Although SCHS hasn’t needed it’s defense much of late as Penny and Poarch have effectively kept teams from making contact.

For everyone planning to come out to the ballpark tonight in Sawmills, which should be upwards of 2,500 people, prepare to arrive early. Seats are often filled and taken by 90 minutes prior to game time when SCHS gets this far in the playoffs. Seats should be marked off down the 1st baseline and saved however for the traveling Knight’s crowd. Don’t take the raucous behavior of the SCHS fans seriously, they are some of the most hospitable fans in high school sports but they still want to send you home with an L.

 

Wow...2,500+...this is getting exciting. Great job by mincmi and by whspioneers in giving a preview of the game. You won't find this stuff anywhere else.

The tailgating is commencing, the Bleacher Bums are getting set up, Steve Penny is drying the field...and the buses and caravans from Charlotte will soon be on their way---this is how a playoff game should be!!!!!!!

in my best Hank Williams, Jr voice---are you ready for some baseball!!!!

 

The tarp is off the field, the sun has poked out, the teams are taking infield, and there is a full rainbow shining brightly in left field as this sectional 4A playoff games is about to begin in about 15 minutes.

 

Webcast has AK beating SC 5-4. AK scored 3 in top of 6th inning. The whole webcast thing is cool.

 

Webcast

You're not kidding. The webcast is the next best thing to being there, BUT be careful, or you'll find yourself addicted to the webcast just Jonesing for the 30 second update, while your wife looks at you and quietly shakes her head as she walks away.

 

Alex Wood - Gutsy Performance

Alex Wood was a true competitor tonight. 120+ pitches in complete game and kept coming right at SC all night. Fun to watch.

The Cody's from SC - Penny and Poarch - can both flat out pitch.

Congrats to South Caldwell on a great season and a great team - could have gone either way.

 

Atmosphere

Thanks to South Caldwell for putting on a great show! Ardrey Kell traveled really well. SC certainly tried to kick butt, but did it with class.

ALSO, a group of players from South Meck came up to support AK and the SW4A. Really cool to see, thanks to those guys for showing up.

 

The drive from Charlotte to “Smallville” was ominous. It was raining hard and everywhere you looked were dark clouds. I was thinking to myself—oh-oh, this is going to be a wasted trip. No way are they going to play the game tonight. But I forgot where we were headed and the magical environment that South Caldwell always plays in. When we arrived at The Rock, it was beautiful. The clouds gave way to a beautiful rainbow and God let us know, in his own way, that this game would be played and the weather would not interfere.

As you would expect, The Rock was rockin’ and Parham’s Spartans were ready to host an exciting game…and he did not let us down. From the first pitch to the last out the place was shaking with responses---and lo and behold, the AK fans were equally heard! I’m not sure if it was the Watauga guys, the South Meck guys, the alumni from AK returning or Mrs. Pasut…but the crowd on AK’s side was remarkably loud, boisterous and supporting. So much so, that even Coach Hal Bagwell got into the act after the game by high-fiving, throwing his hands up in the air to the fans and doing a cowboy heel clicking as he was leaving. I’ve known Bag’s for many years and I have never seen him as demonstrative.

After 2 innings, AK was leading by two runs and with Alex Wood pitching they may have been enough. But SC showed why they deserved to be in this round by battling back and taking the lead on a Cody Penny sharply hit single. The scored stayed 3-2 until the bottom of the 5th when John Gray hit an absolute bomb to left field. Behind 4-2 this is when you find out about a team’s character. Do they fold when they take a big punch or do they fight back? The AK team for the 2nd straight week showed they have some fight in them. The top of the 6th, Woods started the rally by reaching 1st on a HBP. Brett Lang followed with a walk setting the stage with 2 outs for a dramatic single to right by Jack Reinheimer scoring a run. With the tying runner at 3rd and the go ahead runner at 2nd Cody Shelton came to bat. Cody was quickly behind the count 1-2 when he crushed a 98’ double just out of reach of the RF’s glove—in all seriousness, it was a great pitch by Cody Poarch and Shelton was able to find some miraculous way to make contact. Two runs scored and AK took the lead. Alex Wood took over the game at that point and was throwing gas. Alex had to work hard against a tough, tough team that was “ripping” at every pitch. SC refuses to get cheated in their swings and they don’t care who they are facing. But Alex is not an ordinary pitcher and finished the game with 10 hard earned strikeouts.

At the end of the game there were some memorable moments that I’d like to mention:

- The SC fans are so classy. Even though they were obviously dejected, they gave a rousing cheer to both teams for their efforts
- It’s been two years since my last visit; however, Grandma Bumgarner’s Pork Chop sandwich has gotten even better. Thank you to Grandma and to Traci B for bringing, not one, but three sandwiches for me and my friends to enjoy.
- Thank you to Sandra Poarch for bringing the best ‘nana pudding I have ever had. They need to add this to Grandma B’s new restaurant recipe.
- Thank you for allowing me to view Coach Bagwell’s new winner’s dance—I hope to see that again—and to put it on film.
- Thank you to God for clearing the skies and allowing this exciting ballgame to be played…and as soon as it was over and everybody got in their cars it started pouring rain again.

Folks, this is how you want every playoff game to be: Teams fighting and clawing, fans yelling and screaming, coaches coaching, weather is perfect…and the food is great!!!!!
Thank you to the fine folks at SC for showing everyone again that you are the best!!!!

PS- A big thanks to Coach Don Hutchins for always letting me tag along with him to games, even though he realizes it may place him in danger. ~note to self~ now I understand why he never sits with me at a game.

 

Baseball Royalty!

Being served pork chop sandwiches & banana pudding at a ball game. That's as good as it gets!

 

I did this at the same time Braves posted, but I wanted to make sure a few things from the game were mentioned as it took every single Knight to win this game:

- Zico Pasut(Sr) made a fantastic over the shoulder catch in right in the bot 6th for the 3rd out with a man on and knocked in the first run with a single
- Alex Bartolomeo(Jr) continues to get big hits crushing a line drive to left to plate the 2nd run after having doubled in the winning run against Prov Fri night
- Cody Shelton(Jr) continues to get key hits including the game winner last night with 2 strikes when he was able to flare one into short rf. He also singled against Prov and scored the winning run in that game
- Jack Reinheimer(Jr) had a key hit just like he did against Providence

Penny, Gray & Co for SC can swing the stick and had key hits. Poarch showed why he has shut everybody down in post season. SC fans were loud, rowdy and most of all respectful.

AK showed a lot of heart for the second game in a row coming from behind on the other teams field and the AK fans were loud.

P.S. I hope we never see the homeplate ump again as he was absolutely the worst balls & strikes ump I've seen all year. No one knows where his strike zone was...not even him!