Detailed Game Reports

Hickory 13 Foard 5

Hickory team record 6 HR's - Harrow, Yarbrough, Patterson (2) and Punch (2)
Yarbrough 3/4; Patterson 2/3, 3 RBI's; Punch 3/3 4 RBI's, Harrow 2/5; Mauldin 4 BB's
WP - Boyd ( 3 - 2 )

 

Wufman, do you know who pitched for East?

 

Jacob Cooper was the starter. I think he went about 4 innings .

 

Intimidator Coach, that's a good win for the Wonders and an equally tough loss for the Mustangs. I hear that Smith aggrivated that ham string muscle again. Is it bad enough to keep him out of the games? The best thing is to let it rest for a while, but I'll bet he won't want too. It's tough for a senior to have to sit on the bench and watch when he knows that he needs to be out on the field.

 

yep... it looked pretty bad... i figure at least 2 weeks , but the miracles of high school sports medicine will not keep him out long.

 

Re: West Rowan 2 Mooresville 0

I had the pleasure of watching this game. rc is correct about the pitching. The HR given up in the 6th wasn't a mistake pitch. It was outside, below the knees. The batter just went down and got it. The only mistake pitch that wasn't gotten away with all game was ther hanger in the 7th. By this point, both hurlers were at or right above 100 pitches for the game. But both looked strong.

I was impressed by Link (03) and his ability to move the ball. He worked the corners all game, throwing in what I guessed to be the low-mid 80's. He had great movement on all his pitches and, as the saying goes "an inch of movement is worth 3 mph. If that's the case, he was a cool 97-98 without effort that's how much movement he was getting.

Lackey (04) was impressive in his own right. He is more of a power guy, consistently in the mid-80's. He can challenge hitters and doesn't back down. I liked him a lot on the mound, but he was tipping his change occasionally. This is something you grow with, and his curve was working well. He could be a dominate force in the NPC next year.

Both shortstops impressed me. They were lightening fast, had soft hands, were very agressive and had great footwork.

Behind the plate, Ryan Wilson for WR compares very favorably to Jay McConnell. If anything, he is an even better receiver. You don't even have to be a baseball fan to be able to tell in 1 inning that Wilson has great, soft hands and an outstanding release to 2nd. He handles pitchers very well, communicates well, frames well and is a natural leader. The only base-stealer in the game was gunned with room to spare. At the plate, McConnell is ahead right now, but where McConnell looks fully developed physically, you can see that Wilson hasn't begun to fill out yet. You couldn't go wrong with either catcher.

West Rowan is ahead of Mooresville at the plate. They just have more power. Mooresville can play in the states, but will struggle to score runs against the top pitchers, so they may not have a long run. West Rowan has the players to go deeper. I need to see their #1 guy before I will venture a guess as to how deep.

This was an outstanding game to watch.........great fun, even if you don't know any of the players on either team.

 

East Gaston 7
Ashbrook 2

Normally I try to post details immediately after a game, but on Friday after the East Gaston throttled Ashbrook, I drove to eastern NC to see some great baseball. Anyway, I want to give EG their props!

Jason Cline (Sr., Belmont Abbey signee) threw a superb game against the Greenwave. Cline keep hitters off balance with great location of his fastball, curve and change. Cline only allowed 5 hits and two of those came from Drew Martin. On the mound for Ashbrook was soph., Mike Maples. Although, Mapels scattered 7 hits, it was Ashbrook's defense that let down the young pitcher, allowing 5 unearned runs on 4-5 errors. Maples kept his composure and finished throwing a complete game. By far his best outing of the season.

East Gaston is now 3-0 in the Big South 3A, along with surprise North Gaston also at 3-0 in the conference. Ashbrook drops to 2-1 in the conference.

 

Kannapolis/East Rowan game...

RCBBFAN, sorry to get back with you so late. But yes it was a very big win for Kannapolis. Andrew Mead pitched 5 strong innings for Ktown, with Robert Bowers and Ryan Petty finishing the 6th-7th innings respectively. Jacob Cooper started for East, but seemed to struggle with his control early. Cooper struggled through 4 innings although he actually had given up "only" 4 runs; however, Kannapolis hit East's next pitcher (won't mention his name) hard scoring 5 runs in the 5th inning to seal the game. Tyler Morgan came in as East's 3rd pitcher and pitched well to shut us down the last 2 innings.

Anyway, yes it was a big win for Kannapolis. Who can figure this team out? Four of our wins have come against very good 4A teams, and yet here we are with a 6-5 overall record. I know we're young, but we've got to get some consistency in order to make a run for that final playoff spot.

 

West Rowan 2 East Rowan 1

Another well pitched game by both pitchers. Winning pitcher Patrick Adams used a crackling FB mixed ocassionally with a sharp breaking CB to wiff 16 batters. Hard luck looser Jason Cauble pitched well enough to win most games but got little help in the way of offense.
West opened the scoring in the 1st when SS Bryan Graham singled to lead off the game, stole 2nd, stole 3rd, and scored on an RBI ground out by 3rd baseman Seth Waller.
East struck back in the 4th when 2nd baseman Michael Gegorek doubled down the RF line(East's only hit), moved to 3rd on a balk, and scampered home on the back end of a double steal.
West's Ryan Wilson capped the scoring with a solo HR to lead off the 4th that cleared the trees in right/center.


WEST

Adams (WP) IP - 7...R - 1...H -1...SO - 16...BB - 2

EAST

Cauble (LP) IP - 7...R - 2...H - 5...SO - 4...BB - 1

DP - East, LOB - West 5, East 2, HR - Wilson, 2B - Gegorek, S - B. Graham, SB - B. Graham 2, Gegorek, Spencer Steedley
WP - Cauble, HBP - by Cauble (B. Graham), BLK - Adams

 

Central Cabarrus over North Meck

Central locked down their spot on the top of the Meca 8 behind the 3-hit performance of Junior Brad Hinson. Hinson is now 3-0 in conference, CC is 7-0. North Meck's Tom Porter picked up his first loss of the season and is now 4-1.

Senior led Central Cabarrus, battled all night at the plate, fouling off pitches and driving up pitch counts. North Meck spend all night at the plate taking strikes. NM stranded base runners all night and CC kept pressure on the pitcher with their agressive hitting and play. In the cold weather, both pitchers were limited to pretty much Fast balls and curves and both had trouble at times keeping the FB down in the zone. Porter struck out 10 in 5 innings with 2 walks. Hinson piled up the K's also but had 4 BB in the first 2 innings and struggled with free passes during the game.

Zack Rosenbaum came in to relieve Porter in the 6th and was very effective, facing the minimum batters. He had excellent pop and continues to solidify his position as a key player on varsity for the future.

Hopefully, some of the CC folks will give us a run-down on the hitting for their crowd. For NM, there were 2 well struck balls all night, both by FRESHMAN catcher Robert Proffitt, and only one of those was a base hit.

o well.

Central Cabarrus 5, North Meck 1
Central Cabarrus, 8-2, 7-0
North Meck, 9-3, 5-2

WP: Brad Hinson (04) 3-0 in conference (?? overall)
LP: Tom Porter (05) 4-1