There was quite a bit going on this past weekend and we can’t cover everything but here are a few of the pieces. I made the trek out to Jamestown on Thursday and Ragsdale defeated Northeast Guilford in the Easter Tournament 2-1 and the Tigers are the Champions. It was very cold and windy out there on Thursday evening and the game was scheduled to get under way at 7:30 but got started at around 8:45.
Ragsdale has a solid ball team and even though this was the first time for me to see them in person this season, everything that I have been reading about Donnie Maness’s club has been good. Catlin Carter, Brent O’Berry, DeSean Anderson, Tyler Rankin, and Ben Fultz are just a few of the boys that make Ragsdale a tough team to beat. Ragsdale, champions of their Easter tournament and Southern beat Eastern 10-9 to win the consolation game.
Dudley knocked off Smith on Friday night down at First Horizon Park 13-7. It was another cold night with the wind whipping into the stadium and Dudley’s Douglas Sigmon got his team out in front with a three-run homer to left-center and the Panthers took full advantage of the struggling Eagle starting pitcher, big 6’7 Avery Hardy. Lewis Allen came in to relieve Hardy for Smith and he was able to cool off the Panther bats at least to some degree. Tre’ Perry kept the Panthers rolling and Dudley walked away with another win over Smith. Coach Derrick Johnson is trying hard at Smith but his guys are young he may have to check into a retirement center before he gets this thing turned around.
They played the Masters golf tournament down in Augusta, Georgia but the big stir I felt coming out of Georgia was the Atlanta Braves taking two out of three from the New York Mets. Atlanta is 5-1 and FOX 8 would be loving it if all Braves games were being shown on FOX like the one on Saturday afternoon featuring the Braves and Mets and Smoltz vs. Glavine. The Braves are 5-1 and they look like the best team in all of baseball after one week of the season.
Locally the Greensboro Grasshoppers get the home part of their season schedule moving this evening at First Horizon Park. Game time is 7pm and the Hoppers will take on the Lake County Captains in the home opener. The played very well on the road to start the season taking two of three from the Lakewood Blueclaws up in New Jersey. The Hoppers defeated Lakewood 3-1 on Saturday night and John Raynor and Scott Cousins both turned in solid performances for the Hoppers. Raynor stole 3 bases and scored 2 runs while Cousins went 2-3 at the plate and drove in a run. Hoppers at home 7pm Monday night, good seats still available according to Big Jim Modlin.
The Greensboro Revolution ran their season record to 2-0 with a huge 39-26 win on the road down in Columbia, South Carolina on Saturday night. The Revolution lost their starting QB Mike Morrison to injury but backup Colin Harris came on to lead the team to victory. Harris, NEG grad Sammy Henderson, and Dennis Evans all ran for touchdowns to pace the Revolution. The man I mentioned last week, Antoine Calloway, caught another TD pass, this time from 18 yards out. The Revolution are 2-0 and back home at the Greensboro Coliseum this weekend. Greensborosports.com night with the Revolution is Friday April 20th. Doug Cockman is heading this event up and is doing an outstanding job of getting all the details in place.
I ran into Keith Miller and his son Tiger Miller at the UNCG-A&T baseball game last week and they were at the Dudley-Smith game again on Friday night. Tiger plays baseball for Southeast Guilford Middle School and he is also on several traveling teams and Tiger has been learning much about baseball from men like Alan Ashkinazy and the Big Man, Charlie Pannell. We will have more on Charlie Pannell in a future session.
We lost a good one this weekend. Old Western Guilford volleyball star Steve Jones and family will be in our thoughts this week. Steve’s dad, Frank Jones passed away due to complications from cancer, succombing to the deadly disease on Saturday evening. Mr. Jones was 78, but it doesn’t matter how old you are or what your name is, when Cancer comes calling your days are numbered. In recent years I’ve seen my brother-in-law Rick Blackwood, old neighborhood friend Davey Welborne, and now Mr. Jones all go down for the count and we can only wonder who will be next? Our thoughts go out to the Jones family and others involved there this week. Â
Another person I failed to mention is former State Senator Bill Martin who died last Friday of heart disease at his home in Greensboro.(he was 61) Senator Martin was a great man who helped many people and I had the chance to work with him on several radio ad campaigns during his elections to the Senate. Mr. Martin never had any real opposition but he would run the radio spots just to be safe and because he and I had developed a good friendship. Bill Martin would always come in the Friday before the Tuesday election and we would take care of business. Bill Martin looked out for Guilford County and we owe him a debt of gradtitude
The Braves are always the best team in BB April-August—they can never win it when in counts—Cox NEEDS TO GO he just hanging around to draw a check put him in the front office— the game past him by years ago.