More with Gore

Who were some of the players who you thought were tops this season in softball and baseball?

This has been something I have been wanting to do the past few years, but there has been little to no interest shown in the teams – so let’s get this thing rolling.

Here are our schools:

Bruce
Calhoun Academy
Calhoun City
Vardaman
Houston
Lafayette County
Oxford
Aberdeen
Amory
Hatley
Nettleton
Shannon
Smithville
Baldwyn
Booneville
Jumpertown
New Site
Saltillo
Thrasher
Tishomingo County
Wheeler 
North Pontotoc
Pontotoc
South Pontotoc
Coffeeville
Water Valley
Houlka

(If I left some schools out please let me know – I am just naming these off the top of my head)

Be sure to include what spot play and what classification they are.

Feel free to provide stats and other information about the players you have seen this season.

Just in case you missed it:

Daily Journal: Hansbrough transferring from Misssissippi St to Notre Dame

ESPN: Hansbrough to transfer from Mississippi State to Notre Dame

USA Today:  Hansbrough’s brother transferring to Notre Dame

It don’t matter the link you click we got a good one – gigum pups!

Smithville – There might have been tears at the conclusion of 1A North State Championship Series, but there was most definitely no reason for the Lady Rams to hang their heads as their historic season came to an end in a blaze of glory.

After Smithville (27-3) took a 12-0 victory in game one, a situation where most ordinary teams would have thrown in the towel, Vardaman (15-15) proved once again they are no longer just any ordinary team.

“Nobody can ever tell these girls they didn’t do anything at Vardaman… this season was something special,” Coach Billy Dill.

Casey High led off the ballgame with a bunt for a single and advance to third on a sacrifice bunt by Katie Nelson before Greta Parker connected on an infield single to score High to give Vardaman a 1-0 lead in the top of the first.

Smithville took advantage of a trio of Lady Rams errors to take a 5-1 lead through two innings of play.

Lacey Bailey, who led off the fifth inning with a triple that caused a pair of Lady Seminoles to collide in the outfield, scored on a Charlsie Moore RBI single to pull the Lady Rams to a 5-2 deficit.

Vardaman had a chance to pull within two runs in the top of the sixth inning when Whitney Gee tried to advance home on a wild pitch, but a lucky bounce off the back stop put the ball back at the plate for the Smithville catcher to record the out.

“If it didn’t bounce back to the catcher who knows what could have happened because we would have been right back in it,” Dill.

Smithville was able to tack on four more runs to take a 9-2 series clinching victory despite Kelsey Nelson only giving up only two hits in the final four and a half innings of play.

“These girls battled hard the whole time… we came out and punched them in the face, but they were able to come back… We tried so hard to come back in the end, but we didn’t have enough left in the end,” Dill.

Kelsey (11-11) finished the game giving up six hits while striking out five and walking two batters. Kami Roberts (19-2) got the win striking out six while giving up six hits and walking two.

Casey High, Greta Parker, Courtney Shankle, Rashieka Thompson, Lacey Bailey, and Charlsie Moore each had a hit in the contest.

When the game came to an emotional end the Vardaman fans gave their girls a well-deserved standing ovation as they walked off the field having earned much respect for everything they worked so hard to achieve this season – including the respect of Smithville head coach

“You better believe (Vardaman) did an excellent job this year… They are well coached and all those girls fought hard the whole way through. You really got to tip your hat to them and what they were able to do this season,” Duke.

“I can’t be more proud of the girls… They put in a lot of hard work to make this playoff run and this is always going to be something really special for them.” Dill.

While the season came to an earlier end than hoped it still does not take away from how special this season has been for the Lady Rams. The staff at the Monitor-Herald wants to congratulate the 2008 Lady Rams fast pitch softball team, coaches, and fans on a great history making season.

One of the major fundraising events of the year for Itawamba Community College’s football program is its annual golf tourny.  This year’s date is set for May 30th at the River Birch Golf Course in Amory.

This summer’s four-person scramble kicks off with a lunch at 11 a.m. and the shotgun start at 1 p.m. and there is still team or individual slots available.  It’s only $35 dollars a person and that includes your lunch, 18 holes of golf with cart, range balls before the tourny, a football t-shirt, prizes for the top team and also plenty of door prizes.

“It could be the deal of the century so far,” said Indians head coach Jeff Terrill, whose program won the north division a year ago on the way to a third straight top 20 finish in the nation’s final poll by the NJCAA.  ICC and Gulf Coast are the only two among the 14 schools in the MACJC to play football that can say that.  “We guarantee a good time on May 30th at River Birch in Amory.”

If you would like to sign up, sponsor a hole, or need more info, please call Terrill at 862-8227.

The competition was tough during the regular season and it was made even more evident with all four of the Region 2-1A playoff teams making the 1A North State Baseball final four this weekend.

If we have learned anything from the regular season it is that anyone of the final four teams could end playing for the 1A North State Championship.

Ingomar won the regular season championship with a 10-2 region record sweeping Calhoun City and Vardaman but losing twice to Smithville.

Calhoun City finished second in the region with a 10-2 region record sweeping Vardaman and Smithville but losing twice to Ingomar.

Smithville finished third and Vardaman fourth each with an 7-5 region record after the two teams split during the regular season.

Vardaman, Ingomar, and Smithville swept the their way through the second round of the playoffs while Calhoun City advance to the semi-final round with a hard fought 4-3 game three victory over the Myrtle Hawks.

The key to the regions success has been on the mound.

The bats have heated up for each team in the playoffs, but a large part of the success from the plate has been from facing all the stellar pitching in head to head region competition during the regular season.

Each team has a bevy of depth on the mound.

Calhoun City’s Jordan Moore and Mitchell Edwards, Vardaman’s Ty Bullock and Kevin Barnette, Smithville’s Hunter Leech and Dustin Egger, along with Ingomar’s Kyle Heard and Jarred Carter the pitchers have played pivotal roles in each teams run towards the 1A North State Championship.

Ingomar and Calhoun City are seen by some as the early favorites, but Vardaman and Smithville have hit a hot streak in the playoffs making this weekend’s final four series even more interesting.

Game one will be played on Friday with game two on Saturday and game three, if needed, will be played on Monday.  Here is hoping for a Calhoun City and Vardaman North State Championship Series.

Here is a photo of me handing over one of the world famous Vardaman Sweet Potatoes to Brandon after Smithville 9-2 win over Vardaman to claim the 1A North State Championship.

While some people took the blog more serious than its original intent, Speck and I entered the wager with the hopes of creating a buzz around the championship series thus leading to more interest in women’s athletics in Northeast Mississippi.

When I last talked with Brandon our blogs had totaled over 1700 hits combined on our friendly wager along with countless people calling, emailing, or talking with us face to face about the series.

Congratulations to the Vardaman Lady Rams and the Smithville Lady Seminoles on an outstanding season. Good luck to the Lady ‘Noles in their quest for the 1A State Championship.

I am not sure when the second leg of the games will be, but Smithville will host game one Saturday at 4:00 p.m.

Class 1A/2A West Roster

OF Derek Cutts - Ackerman
P/3B Jordan Moore - Calhoun City
OF Dante’ Jennings - Calhoun City
1B/OF Travecus Coffey - Calhoun City
P/OF Zane Treadaway - East Union
SS Will Duggar - East Union
C Dusty Andrews - East Union
1B/3B Zack Williams - East Union
P/OF Devin Jones - Eupora
OF Gerrell Keys - Ingomar
SS/P Jared Carter - Ingomar
P/1B Kyle Heard - Ingomar
OF/UTL Grant Goolsby - Myrtle
UTL/P Nathan Mills - Myrtle
C Matt Pannell - Myrtle
P/OF Kyle Bullock - Vardaman

Coaches:

Josh Miller - Calhoun City
Andy Wilbanks - Ingomar

Class 1A/2A East Roster

3B/SS Wesley Wildmon - Baldwyn
P Paden Stone - Baldwyn
OF/C Michael Lambert - Belmont
3B Ben Kennedy - Belmont
P/OF Adam Kay - Belmont
P T.J. Bagett - Biggersville
P Jamison Allen - Biggersville
C/P/1B Travis Frembgen - Hamilton
SS/P Jake Sloan - Hatley
SS/P/OF Malcolm Warren - Mantachie
C/OF Wes Weaver - Mantachie
P/3B Anthony Dill – Mantachie
P/1B/OF Hunter Leech - Smithville
1B/3B Luke Gardner - Smithville
P/IF Dustin Egger – Smithville
OF/C Nick Moore - Wheeler

Coaches:

Gregg Tucker - Baldwyn
James Shaw – Wheeler

C/P Ricky Ware - Houston
2B/OF Ty Stroup - Houston
C/P Justin McDaniel - Kossuth
P/OF/1B Cody Lawson - Kossuth
P/3B Chris Gullick - Lafayette Co.
OF/IF Hunter Mize - Lafayette Co.
P/3B Brad Luna - New Albany
IF/P Daniel Tunnell - New Albany
C/OF Brock Foster - New Albany
3B/P Matt Shaw - Oxford
2B/SS Ben Ruscoe - Oxford
2B/1B Cody Roberts - Pontotoc
SS/OF/P Ben Wallace - Ripley
C/OF Adam Roye - South Pontotoc
P/OF Blake Jolly - South Pontotoc
2B/SS Parker Gregory - South Pontotoc

Coaches:

Bryan Buckner – South Pontotoc
Curt Fowler, New Albany

Class 3A/4A/5A East Roster

P/OF Jesse Butler - Amory
SS/P Brett Grantham - Corinth
C/P Sam Summerford - Itawamba AHS
P/OF Cody Franks - Mooreville
OF Ladarrius Cole - Nettleton
P/3B Jami Boland - Nettleton
P/3B Austin Burns - Saltillo
C/IF Adam Hill - Saltillo
C/P Josh Saylors - Shannon
P/3B Brett Morgan - Tishomingo Co.
SS/1B Joseph Koon - Tupelo
C/OF Evan Weibel - Tupelo
OF/P Nathan Flanagan - Tupelo
OF/IF Gardner Richey - Tupelo
1B/P/DH Kyle Thornton - Tupelo
OF/IF Channing Walker - Tupelo

Coaches:
Gary Enis - Tupelo
Rob Scarbrough - Corinth

Despite heavy rains passing through North MS early this morning it appears all games are on as scheduled.

Vardaman, Ingomar, and Smithville have all punched their tickets to the 1A North State semi-finals leaving Calhoun City and Myrtle to battle off for the lone spot remaining in the playoffs.

Faced with elimination, the Calhoun City Wildcats picked up an 11-4 victory to force game three tonight at 6:30 p.m. in Myrtle.  Jordan Moore put the ‘Cats up for good with a grand slam in the fifth inning as Blake Goodson came in relief of winning pitcher Mitchell Edwards.

Jimel Judon, game two starter for the Hawks, but came out of the game in the fourth inning with an injury to his throwing arm.

Other games scheduled for today in North Mississippi

New Hope @ Tishomingo County – 2:00 p.m.
Vicksburg @ Oxford – 6:00 p.m.
West Lauderdale @ New Albany – 6:00 p.m.
Amory @ Senatobia – 6:00 p.m.
Lewisberg @ Houston – Double Header, if needed.

Click here for score updates during the New Hope v Tish County game.

First year head coach Brad Embry has added another bit of Bruce flavor to the Water Valley coaching staff with the recent hire of Coach Richard Russo as the Blue Devils defensive coordinator.

Last season the Blue Devils gave up 38.7 points per game, but Russo welcomes the challenge of cutting down on Water Valley’s defensive struggles from last season.

Russo spent time as an assistant coach with the Bruce Trojans before taking over as the head coach at North Delta Academy. He also recently proudly welcomed a new addition to his family as his son Richard Daniel “Trey” Russo, III was born on the 14th of April.

In other news:  Amory fills six coaching voids – including the highly anticipated announcement of the new girls head basketball coach.

In case you missed it here is a story by Brad Locke of the Northeast MS Daily Journal on the coin flip rule to determine where game three would be played in the baseball playoffs.  Heads or tails

We all understand that baseball is not the cash cow that football and basketball is when it comes to high school sports in the state of Mississippi, but shouldn’t the MSHAA attempt to act like they care about the games?

Now before you go waving your six dollar Mississippi Braves cup in my face – I will say this – high school baseball does get the grandest of stages to play for their championship in Pearl, but after that it falls a far third.

My reasons why the MSHAA shows they could care less about baseball.

1. The ever changing playoff system

I am hoping this is the final standard they set for the playoffs (minus the coin flip).  I lost count on how many changes the format went through before they finally got to this point – I stopped caring around change number three.

2. No television

The MSHAA has called in favors and given out favors to get the football and basketball state championship games back on PBS, but very little effort has been made to make the baseball games available for the fans throughout the state.

3. The Championship Trophy

Have any of you seen the trophy?  I won the exact same trophy when I was nine when I finished second in a RA’s box car race in Calhoun County!  When you look across the trophy case some schools state championship trophies are suppose to jump out not look like another trophy from a mid-season basketball tournament.

And now, the coin flip.

I may be looking to far into this, but this should be the ultimate insult to baseball coaches across the state.  Nevermind all the hard work the kids have put into the season to earn a certain spot in the playoffs – we are going to let the coin determine your fate.  Are you serious?

If it works in all the other sports – why shouldn’t it do the same in baseball?

Maybe some of the readers can shed some light on this for me in a way that I am not looking at it, but it seems like to me since baseball isn’t a money sport that they are getting crapped on in the long run. 

I guess baseball coaches can look at the situation and breathe easy by thinking “it could be worse, we could be treated like softball.”