Lenoir Rhyne Part Deux

What a strange day. I left Charlotte en route to Hickory for the LR vs Pfeiffer DH. It was storming all the way up. I figured I had driven to Lincolnton, so I might as well go all the way...take my son to lunch and give him something he always wants when I arrive....money!!!!!

The rain was so hard that many cars were pulling over, but not Braves. I had food on my mind and nothing was going to stop me. About a mile outside of Hickory I could see a patch of what looked to be clear skies. I shook my head in disbelief what appeared to be a Halo effect...where rain was falling everywhere but a circle around LR's baseball field. Coach Pait must have some special connections because there was a seawall of rain surrounding the campus...but not a speck of water dropped on the field...and the game was on.

Game one

I said it was a strange day and baseball must be included in this description.
Lenoir Rhyne jumped out into the lead and Andrew Cooper was pitching very well. Andrew just came back from a year of rehab and he is going to be a horse on the LR rotation. Zach Glass was hitting everything that came near the plate...but today he was going to hit it even if it wasn't. The young man had an awesome day at the plate. Everybody on the team was hitting...unfortunately for Da Bears, so was Pfeiffer. Cooper was the victim of some costly errors and deserved to win this game, but credit Pheiffer for never quitting. Game one goes to Pfeiffer

Game two

Da Bears jumped out to a 5-1 lead that quickly went to 9-2. TJ Worrell made his college debut and was impressive recording 4 K's in a row and appeared to have the game in control. But those Pfeiffer boys just won't quit. Worrell apparently twisted his lower back and Coach Pait took him out as a precaution with the 5-1 lead. LR extended their lead to 9-2 when all of a sudden....the temperatures dropped...the wind was whipping...and someone forgot to tell Pheiffer the game was over. The bases were loaded and bam...a ball that appeared to "be a can of corn" went drifting, drifting and drifted over the CF fence (Grand Slam). Before the inning was up Pfeiffer cut the lead to 9-7 (oh, boy...here we go again)

But up rose a hero...Dan (the man) Poindexter. Dan pitched two innings of shutout ball and was in complete control. I glanced over at Coach Hendricks and I swear I saw his hair turn a shade of grey during the two games on Saturday. It had to be a welcomed relief to see Poindexter pitch so well. I know that Coach Hendricks is a young man; I just hope he still has hair before he turns 30.

Here's hoping for another Bear win today as they will be starting Wednesday's closer, Bobby Kennett

PS- It was great to see so many TBRians at the game. It seemed that half the crowd were all members.

 

I said it was a strange day, but to see NCBballfan and yankee arrive in their vehicles was hilarious. NC packed his car for a day of baseball and yankee brought his tailgating special: I pretended I didn't know them, until I saw Mark Snow, Mark Tarleton, Ed Conrad, Jim Wiley and John MacCurdy join him in a tailgate cookout and realized that matbe yankee was on to something..or is that "on something"?

 

wow what a series! LR took game three of the series 12-11. If they get healthy, LR could be a dominate team in the SAC this year. Worrrell looked great on Saturday. Add him to the rotation with JJ and these guys could be a great 1-2 combo. Pfeiffer could also cause some damage. These guys swing the bats. Pfeiffer played 5 freshman at the ten position spots (counting DH) this weekend. They threw 5 freshmen and two sophomores on the mound. I can see these guys being a pretty good team for some time to come. No matter the conditions, these were some fun games to watch.

 

Hey BudMan..I wish I knew you were there. You are right about this series and about the teams. Pfeiffer was awesome...offensively, they are terrifying and their pitching showed some promise. If both of these teams are rated the 5th best in their conference, I sure don't want to see those other 4 teams before them.

I knew quite a few of the players on Pfeiffer and Coach Shue and I wish them the best of luck when they are not playing Da Bears

 

LRC Game 2

Braves is being very humble in his description of T.J.'s first outting. He looked very relaxed and had excellent location on his pitches. With the exception of tweaking a muscle (hopefully very minor - It was cold and windy) it was the way you want to start what will be a great college career.

Braves, my wife took a while but she finally realized it wasn't me driving the car, the amount of hair on the lady was what she said gave it away. You've got to remember she thought my son and I had gone shopping for her.

 

So when did they make the call to move the game out of Granite Falls. I never heard about that until today!

Good thing I didn't plan on going to the game (out-of-town, sorry!)

We'll meet some of you at a home game eventually.

 

It rained hard Friday night/saturday morning up that way, so they moved the game on saturday morning.

I went to MS Deal, didn't see anyone and wandered back to LRC in search of baseball.

 

LR extended their record to 4-1 as Jesse Jordan supplied the pitching and John Verdenik hit a Granny to beat Limestone 11-5. I did not attend this game, so I can not provide many details

 

Sounds like a "juggernaut" in the making to me! There are a number of high quality young men on that roster from our area. I hope I get a chance to see them play.

 

"Juggernaut"...hahahaha, there's Prepster throwing out those big words again knowing I have a SC education. But if Prepster says it looks like a juggernaut, I agree with him.

I think we will have a lot of fun on the college site this year, if I can ever get Larryd to spin off the next level to college baseball and softball.

Great games coming up with all our schools...and I love the fact that "Goose" Carrara hit a HR against Miami