Panthers to meet in Grimsley Easter Baseball Tournament finals/SEG wins final game at Graham Tourney

The Dudley Panthers and the RL Patton Panthers from Morganton will meet today at 5:30pm in the finals of the Grimlsey Easter Baseball Tournament at Grimsley HS.

We had most of the scores up here for you on Monday and the complete rundown was Dudley over High Point Central 6-1, North Stanley shut out Trinity 5-0, Patton eased past Reidsville 7-5, Burlington Williams got by High Point Andrews 4-1 and in the nightcap, Grimsley held on to top Thomasville 10-9.

The Dudley Panthers and the Patton Panthers will meet in this afternoon’s finals based on their 2-0 tournament records and the fact that they were the two unbeaten teams remaining in the tourney that allowed the fewest runs during their two contests. Dudley(7-3) won their opening game 13-1 over Thomasville and then took Monday’s affair with HPC, 6-1, giving up just two runs. Patton(9-2) won their opener 5-0 over North Stanley and then survived on Monday 7-5 against Reidsville allowing 5 total runs over the two-game stretch.

Grimsley(6-4) also concluded their two game series unbeaten in their bracket with Patton, but Grimsley allowed 13 runs in game one with Williams and then gave up 9 more last night in their one-run win over Thomasville. Again it will be the Dudley Panthers vs. the Patton Panthers this afternoon at 5:30 and you can hear the Championship Game on AM950…..

In Grimsley’s victory last evening, Andrew Justice got the win for the Whirlies and lefty Taylor Lee earned the save. Patrick Ochesli got the call to start for Grimsley and he went 3 innings before Justice came in pitched 2 and two-thirds innings and then Lee came on to close things out going an inning and a third. We mentioned the 10-9 final, the Whirlies went out on top early moving ahead 2-0 in the bottom of the first. The Bulldogs came back to tie it up and then pulled in front taking a 5-4 lead but Grimsley posted 6 runs in the fifth inning to go up 10-5 before Thomasville pushed across 4 more in the sixth to close within 10-9 and fortunately for Grimsley that’s how it ended with Lee closing it down to grab the save.

Grimsley was led in hitting by George Carter who had a double and a triple and the same can be said for EJ Abrams-Ward from Thomasville who duplicated what George did with a two and three bagger. The Whirlies got some other key hits from Cal Sutphin, DJ Russ and Yuri Johnston and Alan Ashkinazy’s team now stands at 2-0 for the tournament.

Southeast Guilford ends up going 2-1 at the Graham Easter Tournament after Monday’s 13-7 win over Chatham Central. You know SEG coach Lynn Coble can’t be pleased with the overall outcome but at least his Falcons finished on a positive note. The top hitters on Monday for SEG(9-2) were Venable, Cockman, Nisbet, and Tobias. Trey Gilmore, who I believe is the grandson of former Congressman Tom Gilmore, was the winning pitcher for Southeast. Tiger Miller, a freshman second baseman for SEG, who has been the designated runner for catcher Jeff Medley during the three-day tournament, got a chance to come on board as a pinch-hitter and I believe he got on base by drawing a walk.

I spoke with the Tiger Man last night after the SEG win and he was excited for his Falcons and he is pumped up like many other SEG fans with the great season fellow-freshman Josh Tobias is having. With Tiger, Tobias, Colby King, and Big George “J” Steele, the freshmen will be taking over Southeast soon and these kids look like they are ready to play ball. Charlie Pannell, the Living Baseball Legend in the SEG community always said, “Thank God for Kids”.

Southeast will be idle until they take on the Ragsdale Tigers next Tuesday April 1st at SEG. Both teams, Ragsdale and SEG are (5-0) in the Mid-Piedmont 3-A Conference and this will be a showdown you will not want to miss…..