Week 5 3/28-4/2

Northeastern Coastal Conference

First Flight over Currituck 2-1, DuCharme WP, complete game, 10 K's

 

Lake Norman 4....Hough 2

Lake Norman wins a very well-played I-Meck 4A conference game in 9 innings, 4-2. Hough got to Lake Norman's ace pitcher Taylor Thurber early for a couple of runs, but Thurber regained command and hung 5 straight zeros on the talented Hough lineup. Thurber has a zippy fastball and is a very seasoned pitcher using location and off speed to keep hitters from making solid contact (6 Ks, 6 hits, 1BB). Hough's leadoff hitter, Jared Sobo used his quick bat to go 3-3 to pace the Huskie's attack. Lake Norman's smooth fielding shortstop, Ian Edmiston was in top form lacing three consecutive doubles that were all squared up and hit with authority. Hough's starting pitcher, Chris Bruner was very effective and pitched out of some jams relying on good location and a curveball that he threw with command.

Things got very interesting in the latter stages of the game. In the top of the 7th, Hough inserted a reliever for Bruner and Lake Norman was down to their last three outs. Lake Norman opened with a bunt attempt that resulted in the runner being safe when the throw carried into the runner and there was a minor collision with the runner and the first baseman's mitt. The next batter, Jesse Seaford pushed a bunt perfectly into no-mans land between the mound and first base and beat the Hough first baseman to the bag. Ultimately, Lake Norman pushed across the tying run on an RBI groundout by Thurber. That set up a bottom of the 7th frame with some unusual drama. Hough got a rally going and with runners threatening, the Lake Norman coach approached the plate umpire for a brief discussion and then went to the mound to talk things over. This was the second trip to the mound in the inning by the Lake Norman coaching staff and when the Hough coaches pointed that out to the umpire, the ump informed the Lake Norman coach that he would have to remove his ace pitcher. At this point the coach was way more than annoyed with the plate umpire and said "I just ask you if I could go to the mound and you said yes". Regardless, the umpire cannot grant permission to break the rules and the second trip resulted in what seemed to be an untimely pitching change. After an intentional walk to the hot-hitting Sobo, Lake Norman reliever Alex Cagide recorded a big strikeout with a sharp breaking ball to end the potential game winning rally.

Lake Norman loaded the bases with only one out in the top of the 9th inning and Drew McNeil executed a perfect suicide squeeze bunt to plate the go ahead run and Alex Cagide followed with an RBI single through the left side to add a nice insurance run. Hough could not muster anything against Cagide who retired all 7 batters he faced by strikeout to close it out. The Hough coach was ejected in the 9th inning for comments from the dugout directed at the plate umpire and was eventually escorted off the field by his athletic director.

Hough is a first year school with one of the nicest ballparks in Mecklenburg County. The crowd and the competition made for a spirited evening of HS baseball.

 

Ragsdale 10
SW Guilford 0 5 innings

It's been an up and down year for the Tigers (5-5) but any time they can run rule rival SW Guilford it needs reporting. I missed thw whole thing since they started early and I was at the JV game. Duncan Sparks, a sophomore got the win with only two hits and nine strikeouts. Kid has done a great job this season.

Up next - SW Guilford again on Friday at their place. Not sure who set up a schedule with back to back games against the biggest rival

 

Myers Park 4 Independence 0
WP Keeter
Leading Hitter Z Blalock 2/3 2 rbi

Jv Mp 6 Ind 4
WP J Norris
Hr R Groome

 

S. Meck 5 Butler 4

Butler loses at South Meck after leading 4-0 thru 4 innings. Chris Pearlmen struck out the first 6 Butler batters he faces and wins throwing a complete game. Butler made 5 errors, most late to contribute to their loss. Tim Youtsey
reached base all 4 times to rally South..

 

Cape Fear Valley Conference:


Southern Lee 4 Douglas Byrd 3

 

Porter Ridge 3 Weddington 0

PR pitcher throws a one hit hit gem facing one batter over the minimum while striking out 11. PR starts its "young" infield again with 1B-sophomore, 2B-freshman, SS-freshman, and 3B-sophomore.

 

SW4A

Providence 3, East Meck 2

More at www.southwestern4abaseball.com/news.html

 

Big East

Rocky Mount 10 Nash Central 1

Benton Moss: Along w/ the 1 hitter, & 17 K's Moss tied Jim Leggett for the most victories in Gryphon history w/ 28. Benton's career mark is now 28-4.

Thomas Berry & Taylor Clontz both had 2 hits to lead the Gryphons, but just about everybody got involved in a wild bottom of the 4th inning when the Bulldogs just imploded after a mixture of walks, errors, dropped fly balls, w/ some hits thrown in for good measure. Rocky Mount scored 9 times in the 4th to take all the suspense out of this game.

Wilson Fike 6 Southern Nash 2

Jackson Pardue (2-0) gets the W!

Coach Will Flowers notched his 400th career win while at Fike.

Wilson Hunt 4 Northern Nash 3

Ches Lamm (3-0) gets the W!

Spencer Boykin (2-4 w/ homerun) & Jacob Page (3-4) led the Warriors at the plate.

 

Mooresville vs. N. Meck

Mooresville really came alive in this conference match up against the Vikings of North Meck. North Meck notched runs on early and never looked back. I think they knocked North's starting pitcher (Leonard) out in the 3rd inning. Last night shows proof of the deadly line up that Mooresville is capable of putting on the field. The combination of Little, Altizer, and Bagwell did well keeping the ball down in the zone and getting ahead of batters. Little walked one batter in the second and Mooresville did not surrender a walk for the rest of the game. Hope to see this play from Mooresville continue and they will end up having a great season after starting off a little slow. Congrats to the Devils, keep it up.