Week 8 - April 19-24

South is still 4-4 in league play. Weddington no longer competes in the SW4A. South still has 4 league games remaining.

 

Yeah my bad! Sometimes when your old and gray (me) it takes a while for things to sink it!

 

BAD WEEK

Bad week for Ragsdale is putting it mildly. On Monday Ragsdale was tied for first in the conference at 6-1 with a tiebreaker with E Forsyth who had suffered their only conference defeat @ Ragsdale. Barely 48 hours later Ragsdale found themselves at 6-4 and now in fourth place in the conference. In three days they go from a first place seed to barely hanging on to a playoff spot.

After a tough loss @ rival SW Guilford last Friday (first conference loss) Ragsdale had to go to E Forsyth Monday to resume a rained out game. Bad news for Ragsdale they had played a ½ inning in that game so the rosters were set. Starting catcher was out with injury, backup catcher was already DHing so when catcher #3 was called in to pitch we had to pull our SS so he could catch. Not that any of that lost the game – East hit four HRs (one kid had three) and shelled Ragsdale 15-4. Now 6-2 and dropped into a tie for second.

Now Ragsdale has game two in a row – at home with NW Guilford. A game Ragsdale should win easy on paper – but you know how that goes. Ragsdale had just thrown #1 and 2 pitchers (both hit hard) and used up a lot of bullpen. Starter #3 Walt Sparks has a ligament tear and is done for the season pitching and catching – a real shame – the kid was having a phenomenal senior season. Although he is available to DH, he is most missed behind the plate. So with Stone, Hodges and Sparks unavailable Ragsdale had to turn to DeSean Anderson, a spot reliever this season to get his first start. I missed most of it but he did okay and left with an 8-5 lead and two men on in the fifth. But that fifth inning did them in. Southcott came in, pitched well but the catcher had a tough time handling his curveball, allowing two runners to reach on strikeouts. Two other passed balls in the inning and a couple timely hits for NWG allowed them to take a 9-8 lead.

Here comes the fun part. With one out, one on in the sixth – Zach Hodges to the plate, already had a HR on the night. Strike one – really bad call. Hodges steps back, drops his bat (on accident he claims). Picks it up, steps out of the box to get the sign from third. Pitcher still on the back of the mound not ready to throw. Umpire hops up points at Hodges and yells “I’ve got strike two on the batter!” All hell breaks loose. Maness goes off out with the full support of the Ragsdale crowd. Umpire tells Maness “we’re not going to argue ball and strike calls” but as Maness points out this wasn’t a ball/strike call on a pitch. It was the ump deciding to enforce a rule that is rarely if ever enforced at least in the numerous games I’ve seen over the years. Unfortunately for Hodges, he muttered one of the unforgiveable words and got ejected. Not DQed but ejected. Which means a three game suspension. Which means a seriously thin and worn out pitching staff just lost the only rested arm that has to pitch the next night. Ump refused to change it to a DQ and the state wouldn’t even consider an appeal. While I understand Hodges getting tossed for language I think the ump bears a huge responsibility for setting the kid up with a ridiculous call. So while not the reason for the loss that night, (9-8 was the final) it makes for a huge burden the rest of the regular season missing Hodges for two more games.

So now 6-3 and dropped into a third place tie with the next night’s opponent – Kernersville Glenn. Another tough team, not as good as past years, another that Ragsdale should beat on paper. But with Hodges not available it means Ragsdale has to throw Stone on one day’s rest. He fought through, left the game in the fifth tied at five. But now Southcott has to come in for a third night in a row and Ragsdale wasn’t able to hang on losing 9-5. By games end Ragsdale had only two starters in their regular spots with a JV player on third. So now it’s 12-6, 6-4 with four straight conference losses and now in fourth place with two to play. The next game is @ Glenn and Hodges will once again be out of the lineup.

I am confident in saying no team had a worse week than Ragsdale just went through.

 

Ardrey Kell at Butler

Will be webcast tonight at www.tbrpreps.com

 

Concord defeats Hickory Ridge 2-0.

 

Dang another 10+ inning for Butler this week...did they run across a black cat?

 

Any score on the South Meck Indy game?

 

South Meck 5 Independence 1

The Sabres of SM were able to take care of business tonight at Sabre Field beating the Patriots of Independence 5 - 1!

Harrison Hood (Francis Marion) went the distance tonight while allowing only one run.

Trevor Hovis (Francis Marion) had two hits for the Sabres.

Deuce Wright (Spartanburg Methodist) had one hit (1-2) while adding three (3) more RBI's to his total!

South Meck is now 5-4 in the SW4A Conference. I know I got it right this time!

The Sabres play Parkwood in a non-conference game Monday night at Sabre Field.

 

Piedmont 5
Cuthbertson 4

 

I heard Hopewell 6, Lake Norman 3. Any details?