Day One - 2007 American Legion Baseball State Tournament
August 8th, 2007 Posted in American Legion baseball
First Session.
Game 1 - Rowan defeats Morehead City by a Score of 9-2.
Rowan County Legion got to previously undefeated Morehead City pitcher Tyler Brownlow early with two runs in the first. Morehead answered quickly with a run in the bottom half of the first, but Rowan starter Cy Young (photo above) would close the door after that. Rowan however scored another run in the second on a Justin Mock solo home run, and three more runs in the third. In the third, Rowan got two runners on base, and then delivered them via a Trey Holmes RBI hit and a sacrifice fly. Rowan scored three more in the fourth to take a 9-1 lead. A Matt Hall solo home run started the scoring. The homer was followed by the Morehead pitcher hitting a batter, a Justin Roland double, a Jason Ridenour walk, a double play that scored a run, and then Trey Holmes driving in another run with a double. The Rowan scoring stopped there, but the dominating pitching performance from Cy Young didn’t. Young pitched seven and two thirds inning, allowing only two runs to lead Rowan to the winners bracket. Keegan Linza, Rowan’s other ace starting pitcher, closed the victory out.
Game 2 - Caldwell County wins easily over Wayne County by a score of 11-0.
This game had all the ingredients to be a pitchers duel, and, until late in the game, it was. In a pitching match-up of two likely future UNC Tarheels, Garrett Davis from Wayne County, who will be a freshman for UNC this fall and Jimmy Messer, who hasn’t even started his senior year in high school (South Caldwell), but has already verbally committed to UNC. The two star pitchers have contrasting styles as Davis likes to blow hitters away with his lively fastball that consistently reaches in the low 90’s, whereas Messer relies on his secondary stuff to keep hitters off balance. Both pitchers had the opposing hitters off balance early. In the third inning, Caldwell got to Davis, scoring two runs on a Josh Severt single followed by a double that scored Severt, and a wild pitch that scored a run. That provided to be enough runs as Jimmy Messer kept Wayne County hitters off balance the entire game, as Wayne couldn’t get the timely hit to score a run and put the pressure on Caldwell. With Messer cruising, the Caldwell hitters came alive in the seventh, erupting for seven runs - two coming on a Brad Chavis home run. Caldwell scored two more in the eighth to give them a 11-0 victory in eight innings (10 run rule).
Second Session
Game 3 - Cherryville outlasts Durham by a score of 9-7.
Cherryville (photo above) scored once in the first inning, twice in the second and once more in the third to go ahead 4-0. Cherryville could’ve created more distance, but Durham turned key double plays in the first and second innings. Underdog Durham played pesky baseball, closing to within 4-3 in the fifth, and catching Cherryville briefly at 4 in the sixth. However, Cherryville scored an unearned run in the sixth, and four unearned runs in the eighth to provide enough insurance for their star pitcher Chris Henderson, although he yielded three Durham runs in the ninth to make it close. Henderson also led the offense by ripping three hits, while Trey Blake, Payden Houser, Jake Watts and Aaron Haynes added two hits apiece. Watts slugged the game’s only home run.
Game 4 - Host team Garner upsets Randolph County with a score of 6-3.
Garner got a dominating pitching performance from Greg McDaniel to lift Garner to a first round victory over Randolph County. McDaniel threw a complete game yielding only three runs with all of them coming in the eighth inning. McDaniel gave up only four hits to the powerful Randolph lineup, while getting at least 10 strikeouts. Garner got two runs in the third and added one in the sixth. In the seventh, Jeremy Hall ripped a double to the right centerfield gap that plated what proved to be a critical insurance run, because Randolph in the bottom of the eighth inning finally got to McDaniel. Ben Bunting and Ethan Marsh hit back to back singles, and then McDaniel got a bit wild. McDaniel loaded the bases on a walk, threw a high fastball that got by his catcher to score a run, and then only a pitch or two later threw another pitch past his catcher to score the second run. McDaniel settled down to get what looked to be a routine ground ball to the third baseman, but he threw it where the first baseman couldn’t handle it, scoring the third Randolph run of the inning. After the third run came in, a ground ball was hit up the middle and the Garner shortstop ranged over to get it, but threw the ball in the dirt, however it was scooped up nicely by the first baseman to end the inning. Garner came right back to score two runs in the top of the ninth, and McDaniel didn’t allow a run in the ninth, making the final score 6-3.
[Where: Garner, NC]
