After all of the Dust has Settled:Looking back at some of our Baseball and Softball over the past few days…..

Josh Tobias, from Southeast Guilford High School and the University of Florida, now playing at second base for the Pawtucket Red Sox, the Triple A affiliate for the Boston Red Sox….Five games so far for Josh, and he is hitting at .167 and he has a double among his three hits, and it seems like Josh was always good for a double no matter where he was, or is, hitting in the lineup…Good luck to him, and let’s hope he still gets to the top of the ladder, with Boston….

Great broadcast work by Enad Haddad, Wyatt Smith and our newest broadcast team member Randy ‘Nat’ Norris, as we look back at our Farm Bureau Insurance/Grasshoppers Baseball Tournament from the past few days…

Coach Norris jumped in there and did a great job on baseball commentary, along with Enad and Wyatt…Coach Norris was very a good find, and many found his commentary and stories to be a nice fit for high school baseball broadcast…

As for the Farm Bureau Insurance/Grasshoppers Tournament it was a good one…

There were the regular challenges, we have seen in previous years, such as rain, wind and some cold, but if you took a vote, I bet you to a man/woman, they would all say they were glad we got the tournament done on Friday, and play did not have to spill over into Saturday…..

We saw some super games…..

I have developed this propensity, which I think is a habit of collecting sheets of paper, and since I have put all of the tournament results on those pieces of paper, these files are of great value to me, and I would think that they would mean a lot to you too….

Some of those memorable games from this past week and oh by the way, you can still listen back to the games on GreensboroSports Radio….That’s www.greensborosportsradio.com, as I have found and maybe you can feel it too, sometimes it helps to spell things out…

Go back and catch the games as they run in rotating order, Games 1-12, at GreensboroSports Radio, and if you want to download some of the games and save them for your files, I can’t tell you how to do it, but most of you are super tech-niques these days and you can make it happen on your home computer, your laptop, or your smartphones…Again, that home spot is GreensboroSports Radio….

I would say we had at least one of those Next Top Recruits, Top Games of the Day, each day of the Tournament….

On Wednesday, it showed up during the last game of the day…Here you go with Rockingham 2, Grimsley 1…This game went 8 Innings, and it was one of those classics…Jake Bloss on the mound for Grimsley was like the old “Bulldog”, the ‘workhorse’….Former Greensboro Grasshoppers pitching coach Charlie Corbell used to say, “we just have to find a horse, and then we are going to ride him”….That is what Grimsley did with Bloss…I was saying that night, that Bloss had good “Blossocity”, and he did…Coby Ingle was equally impressive on the hill, for the ROCK…Ingle has committed to attend N.C. State University and the Wolfpack will be getting a good one…That was one heck of a game with the Whirlies and the ROCK, and a great way to wrap up Day One of the Tourney…

As we turn the sheets to Day Two of the Tourney, we had not one, but TWO Farm Bureau-Grasshoppers Classic Games for that day….

The first saw more zeros than we see when I post my exemptions each year on my out-of-state/out-of-mind income taxes, with Western Guilford and High Point Central putting zeros/0’s across the scoreboard, as went all the way to the ninth inning…What a battle and it became another pitching love-fest, as Caleb Carden(Western Guilford HS) and Jalen Martin(High Point Central HS) were locked up, in a a good old-fashioned pitcher’s duel…The game was a true test of wills and will we remember this one 10 years from now???

I bet you Nick Thompson, Trevor Glisson and Robbie Boyd will…Carden got the win for WG, but Thompson got the super save, when he faked the throw to third base, then threw over to first base and picked off a HP Central Bison baserunner, like he was picking a fly off of a picket fence, two miles down a dirt road….Thompson made one of those magic moves of the tournament and that helped make it a “Classic Game”….As for Glisson, he scores the run that gave Western, the 1-0 win in 9 innings and for Boyd, he got his ‘Boyd Bat’ on the ball, and drove home Glisson in the top of the ninth, to give Western the only run they would need, and they made it stand up for the victory/”W”, for WG….1-0 Hornets over the Bison, in a classic..

That was some sort of battle….

Now for our Top Game of the Day #2 for Day Two, and we say “how do you do”, to the Southeast Guilford Falcons and the Western Alamance Warriors…SEG and WA go all the way, and what can you say, but Ryan Douglas and Will Martin…I just can’t say enough about the job Douglas and Martin did….Both pitchers went the distance and they may have been Falcons and Warriors, but these two kids had the “Eye of the Tiger”, on this night….Douglas got some run support, but we need to clarify what we mean by run-support and tell you he got one run, and it came from the first SEG batter of the game, TJ Ash…Ash led off the SEG batting order in the top of the first inning, as Ash made his way to second base, with a Double…Ash later scored from third base, on an error by the Western Alamance defense, and with the first Falcon(Ash) scoring, that would be the only run we would see in this ball game….

Will Martin was a moose on the mound and Ryan Douglas kept all of the WA Warriors’ batters at bay, all of the way….Southeast collected eight hits off of Martin, but every time SEG would get startin’ vs. Martin, Will would find a way to get out of the jam..Douglas saw very few hiccups and with the SEG ‘D’ backing him up, Southeast was taking that one-run win all the way to the finals, on Friday…..Again, as we reflect back on this game, you just can’t say enough about the job Douglas and Martin did….

And now you might say, our ship has begun to roll/sail in…

We advance to Day Three of the Farm Bureau Insurance/Greensboro Grasshopper Baseball Tournament and do we have any more of those “Classic Games” left up our sleeve?

OK, the Grimsley-Western Guilford game ended as a one-run affair, with the final, Grimsley 4-3, over WG…Very good baseball game, but I am going to use my executive order/power here, and ride with the Wesleyan Christian Academy-Southeast Guilford game as our Game of the Day, from Friday…

WES wins the Championship over SEG, 5-0, and that might look like a lop-sided or run-away score to some, but this game had its “Magic Moments”…

This was the Championship Game and we saw more stellar pitching, with the WES Trojans sophomore hurler Jacob Cozart throwing for the complete-game victory…Will Foucek gave his SEG Falcons a fine effort and as Will tired in the seventh inning, the only question you have is when to come get him….It gets to point where you have to decide how far could he go and when do you have to hit the bullpen…SEG had to get that last out, but WES would not oblige, as the WES Trojans ended up posting two runs in the top of that 7th inning…

Now here we go with the “Magic Moment” of the tournament in my opinion….WES is up 4-0 in the top of the seventh inning and the Trojans have runners at first and third with two outs…Chet Sikes has scored for WES to make it 4-zip, as Sikes came in on a SAC Fly delivered by Jackson Bowman…The SAC Fly by Bowman was out number two, and the WES Trojans still have two men on base, as Nick Boles had moved to third on the Bowman SAC Fly, as Sikes scored…A walk placed Justin Steenes at first base and the Trojans have runners at first and third…

WES has kept pressure on SEG all night long, and here comes another move by WES head coach Scott Davis….With his runners at first and third and two outs, he has his runner at first base take off toward second base, but the runner doesn’t go on to second, he just stops….He is trying to get himself in a run-down, so the runner on third can break for home, but runner coming off of first base just stops half-way between first and second base, as if to say to the Southeast Guilford pitcher, “Come and Get Me”…SEG would like to get that runner from first out, before the run from third scores, but the runner from first is just standing there like a jack rabbit stuck in the middle of the road, waiting for the car to hit him…

Southeast is sort of thinking we need to get this runner over from first trapped in a run-down, but the WES runner is just standing looking at them, and while all that is going on, the WES runner from third breaks for home and before the Falcons can tag out the runner over there between second and first, the WES runner from third has now scored, making this a 5-0 game, instead of a 4-0 WES lead….A gutsy move on the part of WES, if you ask me….They/WES were not content to sit on that 4-0 advantage, the Trojans went for the jugular vein and they got….

This again, was a gutsy move to get that insurance run in the Farm Bureau Insurance/Grasshoppers Baseball Tournament, and this was the single-most interesting play, I have seen all season…The runner jumped off of first for second base, but he did not keep going on to second, he just froze right there in the middle of the base-path/road, between first and second base…

I had seen a play in Greensboro Grasshoppers game earlier in the year, where the Greensboro Grasshoppers batter hit one toward the right-field corner and was taking second base for a sure double, but as the runner LoLo Sanchez hit second base, he rounded the bag and kept on digging for third base, and I thought this would be a sure out, but nobody was covering third base….It was like Sanchez was heading down the Ventura Highway and getting ready to land on that big white third base bag and it was all his, because nobody was there to tag him out….So much white space over there at third, it was crazy….

So that play with the runner from WES, stopping between first and second base, setting up the runner scoring from third base, that was my “Play of the Tournament”…That one will give me a lasting memory/impression….

Just one more quick point, SEG had a very big rallying cry going in the bottom of the sixth inning with a man on first with one out, and Ryan Douglas smacks a single and I think this one off of the bat of Douglas, goes to right field and the SEG runner from first tries to go from first-to-third on the Douglas single, and the runner is throw out at third base for out number two and for SEG, instead of having runners at first and second with one out, they end up with a runner at first base with two outs, and with a ground out by the next man up, they are out of the inning…You do have to take some chances and SEG liked their chances in that situation, and it definitely put pressure on WES, which is what you want, but Wesleyan responded on defense in that sixth inning and at that stage of the game, with WES only up 3-0, this could have been a different contest, but to WES’s credit they wouldn’t allow it…

SEG put up a great fight, but WES would not lay back, they were up to the Falcons’ challenge and WES came right back at SEG and added on those two runs in the top of the seventh….

Some kind of ball game and a certain moxy by WES that makes them stand out…I felt like WES had a slight advantage coming into this Championship Game, since they had won last year at SEG, and also since WES is sound fundamentally and they don’t make many mistakes if any on defense and like Coach Scott Davis from WES had been saying all week long, “if we can ever get our offense going, I think we can be pretty good”, and I would have to say, that they are well on their way….

That is all of our analysis for the tournament and if you have been reading our posts/article, or listening to our broadcasts of the games, you can see we have laid out a load this week……

Just about time for us to roll out, but before we do, let’s recognize a few kids that really got our attention this week….

From Watauga, the kid that stood out to me was Jake Watson….The kid could kill it at the plate…Watauga also had what might have been the top name from the tournament in Jacob McInturff…I also liked that Austin Idol name, the same name of the professional wrestler from Tennessee, back in the day…

From High Point Central the one that got me was Jalen Martin…..He did a super job on the mound in Central’s 1-0 loss to Western Guilford on Thursday, and this kid showed me hustle all week long, loved the way this kid got after it…Great to meet Central’s Coach Andy Harper…Had heard good things about Coach Harper this week, and got to find out all of the things that I have been hearing are for real..Good man and he has a good plan for his team and for his life…

From Western Guilford we will go with Clay Dilday, Nick Thompson, Trevor Glisson, Robbie Boyd and Caleb Carden….They all were a big part of the Western fabric and what the Hornets were able to do this week…

From Grimsley, I will have to start with Coach Jason Simmons…Had never interviewed the coach before this week, and he can get the word out there with the best of them….Did a super job for us answering all of our questions and offering up info…Then you had Jake Bloss, Gus Hughes, CJ Neese and Neese really hit the ball well this week, and I also liked the way Zach McRae saw and hit the ball during the tournament, while Eli Willen showed us some spark on the mound and at the plate..

From Rockingham County we spotlight Coby Ingle, he is one solid college prospect, you had their catcher/pitcher/DH Jonathan Todd, Brandon Leonard was tough and so were Greyson Tudor and Mason Hollifield, plus for the names, we really like that name from The ROCK, Caleb Ketchie….Not a bad baseball name at all, “they call me Ketchie”….

From Western Alamance you have to, in my opinion, start off with Will Martin…Startin’ with Martin, that’s just smartin’….Then you go on with Austin St. Laurent, Kaden Smith, Cody Acosta, and I liked the way Clay Brannock was hitting the day he was pitching….This is a solid group and they should hit the 3-A playoffs running….

From Southeast Guilford we roll with Ryan Douglas who we had going 6-9 at the plate this week and he picked up a win on the mound, plus you have to like Brandon “Bo Bo” Wallace, the Day One winner for SEG vs. WG….And TJ Ash, with speed to burn, Isaiah Rhem has speed and athleticism, Jake Jenkins-Cowart has a pop in his bat, Carson Smith is a very tough little defensive catcher and you can on and on, this team has talent…..

From Wesleyan, you have to start with the Cozart brothers(Caleb and Jacob)….You look at the WES lineup card and you see those names and if you are with the opposing team, you know right quick, you are going to be in for a long day…Then you see Gavin Byrd roaming or roosting in center field, Chet Sikes behind the plate, Nick Boles, Luke Barrow, Jackson Bowman, Alejandro Rodriguez, where do we stop???

Where do we stop, what about right here??? Not just yet…..

Here is our honor roll call, as we run down all of the winners from the eight years of the Farm Bureau Insurance/Greensboro Grasshoppers Baseball Tournament…

2019:Wesleyan Christian Academy
2018:Wesleyan Christian Academy
2017:Southeast Guilford High School
2016:Southeast Guilford High School
2015:Wesleyan Christian Academy
2014:McMichael High School
2013:Randleman High School
2012:Southeast Guilford High School

We hope to add some softball news in here as we can locate some…..
Check out today’s softball news at this post on our site:
Southern Alamance Varsity Softball’s 20th Annual Easter Tournament Day 2 Results
(We slip away knowing he have given a solid effort in covering the baseball tournament this week.)

3 thoughts on “After all of the Dust has Settled:Looking back at some of our Baseball and Softball over the past few days…..

  1. Check out the Saturday softball news at this post here on the site today….

    Southern Alamance Varsity Softball’s 20th Annual Easter Tournament Day 2 Results

  2. Really enjoyed your broadcasts this year. Great job by you and your helpers. Thanks for all you do to promote local sports!!

  3. Thanks Gfan, we appreciate the boost…Spread the word, we have the goods and it is pretty good stuff….We give all the credit to Don Moore, Wyatt Smith, Enad Haddad and Coach Randy Norris…

    We had some Classics this year and with all the talent we have here locally, tournaments like this one should continue to grow….Would love to see an NWG, SWG, a High Point Christian Academy or any other local team, get involved and join the tourney…

    Hope they can get Randleman or Uwharrie Charter back in the fold, one of these days….

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