Jamestown(Ragsdale) defeated Dudley#1 by the score of 11-5 on Sunday in the Championship game of the COLT Baseball tournament. I had a call from Donnie Stowe yesterday reporting the score in at 11-3 but Lee weighed in with the 11-5 and Lee is connected with the Jamestown Tiger crew and I say if he had his team winning by less than the first call we took, then we’ll take Lee’s final score for now.
The game was delayed for a while on Sunday while they searched for a field to play the game on, as War Memorial Stadium was being used for Triad Amateur Baseball(Palomino) and the Colts had find a place to play. I believe they finally secured Stoner-White Stadium at Jaycee Park and were able to get the game in, between TAB(Palomino) contests. (The game had been suspended in the bottom of the 4th inning on Saturday night with Jamestown leading Dudley 9-2).
If any of our readers have any details about Sunday’s game with Jamestown and Dudley#1 in the COLT finals please send them to our comment box and we will put them on the front page for all to see. The COLT All-Star tryouts are supposed to begin today and we will see how this All-Star team shapes up as they try to make it out to Lafayette, Indiana for the COLT National finals.
Alan Ashkinazy is set to coach the All-Stars and Alan knows the game and the rules. In the game with Grimsley vs. Jamestown on Friday(a game which Jamestown went on to win 10-6), Alan was able to make the umpires reverse a balk call and the two Jamestown runners were forced to return to second and first after the umpire had awarded them second and third base on the original balk call. Alan said time had been called before the balk was called by the ump and that the runners must return to their original bases because time was out when the ump called the balk. The COLT Baseball committee including Donnie Stowe and Dave Thomas had a quick meeting behind home plate and they ruled that Alan was correct and the umpires were wrong on this call.
That’s pretty much the way I was able to interpret the dispute and if anyone has a different version I would like to hear it. Needless to say it made for an interesting afternoon of baseball at War Memorial Stadium on Friday.
Congratulations are in order again for Jamestown for winning the COLT Baseball tournament and if you have any more details on that game please send them our way.
I am thinking the Colt All-Star tryouts do not start until next Monday, 7/14
1/2 of the nwg colt team played somewhere else instead of playing for their team in the championship and there were other teams doing the same. Oh yeah, I’ve heard ,but it’s only crappy colt ball…well if it’s that’s bad.. my new rule…whoever doesn’t play for their team in the semi or championship game(only for the championship tournament) but deliberately plays for another travel team ….. will be prohibited from playing on the all-stars team…that will stop it…there was a time when commitment and loyalty meant something. OK, let’s hear the attacks on this one.
Steve, I may be off a week on this one. I heard Donnie Stowe and Dave Thomas talking about this last week and they said tryouts would start for the Colt All-Stars on Monday and I assumed that meant today. We will see if we can get some clarification. You would think that the tryouts would carry over to right after the tournament but maybe not. There may be some travel team commitments this week.
I was off the mark on a piece last week where I said the three main coaches at Northern did not teach there last year. Football, Basketball, and Baseball. Football coach Johnny Roscoe did teach Social Studies at Northern in 2007/2008. Roscoe had previously retired from the South Carolinia school system. Coach Kowalewski and Coach Smith did not teach at NGHS in 2007/2008. Thanks to Jimmy C. for bringing it to our attention.
Andy Durham
I heard that several players showed up today at Smith HS for the tryouts.
They had been told that tryouts were July 7,8, and 9…..
This sounds like a scam.
Tryouts are next Monday, the 14th. Unsure of time and location. Call GBC at 855-6637 for more info.
Northwest was missing a few talented players but they were not by themselves. many players from other teams (especially Jamestown) were at the Impact event this weekend at Wake Forest and UNC-C.
Tryouts for All-Stars are Monday, July 14th, 6:00 PM at Smith High School. Tryouts were moved back a week. Players nominated for tryout can probably get the information from their coach.
As for ‘not a NWG”…I think “deliberately play for another travel team” is a little misconstrued. If you are committed to both teams how do you decide which is the priority when a conflict arises? Some travel teams have had schedules out since February (vs Colt ball in May). With travel arrangements and hotel reservations made months in advance, do you inform your coach and teammates that you will not be going to a tournament the week before because your Colt ball team has a tournament? What about those that miss because of football camp, soccer, etc? Will they be excluded from All-Stars as well?
Any player that chooses showcase ball over Colt– probably will choose showcase over All-Stars anyway. Problem solved.
Don’t have much of a game summary. However Dudley played well all week. I have watched this group of kids for years now. I’ve been predicting for 2 years now that this group at Dudley will win a confernce championship, possibly as soon as next year.
Timely hitting, good defense and pitching did Dudley in in the final game. For Jamestown most everyone hit but Joe Bright, Mike Whited, Bennet tHixson, DeSean Anderson and Zack Hodges were especially strong at the plate. Walt Sparks started on the mound for Jamestown and cruised through 4 innings and was up 9-2 until the rain stopped the game at the top of the 5th with Dudley coming to bat. With the game going to Sunday for completion Billy Stone closed the last three innings for an 11-5 final score. Jamestown pitching was simple. After scouting Dudley earlier in the week Sparks and Stone realized Dudley struggled with any pitch with movement so the plan was to use 2 seam fastballs with movement and sacrifice 2-3 mph for the movement along with a steady diet of change-ups and a few curve balls. This produced 4 ground ball singles, 0 extra base hits, a few timely strike outs and a lot of infield put outs which were gobbled up by Hixson, Whited, Hodges and Stone. Stone then came in with the same plan as he was able to get ground balls and pop-ups with his change-up. Both pitchers pitched for contact and keeping the Dudley hitters off balance knowing the defense behind them would do their job.
Dudley is very talented and much improved. Coach Crawford and others in the community should be very proud of the revitalization of quality baseball in the Dudley district.
As to the balk call, the batter stepped out, the umpire never called time out and the pitcher started his motion and completed his motion yet never through the baseball. The umpires dcleared balk, Alan did not think so since the batter asked for time although the umpire never gave the batter time. What caused some of the confusion was the umpires then went to the tourney committee for a ruling and the men had to go to their car to find some rules. They made the decision that it was no balk.
The environment was already a little tense due to several situations where one of the Grimsley coaches (not Alan) was stealing signs and signaling his batters, Stealing signs is part of baseball. Leaning out on the field and going out all the way in the dirt to get them is not. The grounds crew never painted in a coaches box so the coach contined to get right up against the base line and lean in looking for a sign (can’t really blame him, there was no coaches box). Many parents knew what was going on since some had played for this coach in AAU and were very familiar with the process. After notifying the Jamestown coaches they spoke with the umpires and the Grimsley coach was told by the umpires to stay off the field and back in the grass several feet where a coaches box should have been painted. This direction from the umpires combined with a few high and tight pitches seemed to correct the situation.