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Baseball playoffs hit home stretch
Five area teams still alive in NCHSAA quarterfinal rounds
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Published: May 20, 2008
North Davidson will have to win on the road to return to the Western Regional finals of the NCHSAA 4-A baseball playoffs.
North (23-3) will play at Charlotte Ardrey Kell (25-4) today in one of three quarterfinal games involving area teams. Also, Starmount (16-9) will play at Ledford (23-6) in Class 2-A, and surprising Bishop McGuinness (10-13) will play at South Stokes (21-5) in Class 1-A. All three games will start at 7 p.m., and winners will advance to the best-of-three Western Regional finals later this week.
North Davidson will rely on senior pitcher Clay Watson (11-2) to hold down Ardrey Kell, which will pitch ace Jordan Darnell, according to Coach Mike Meadows of North. North also will have staff ace Zach White, and hard-throwing closer Tyler Hanover, who also plays second base and has hit 10 home runs, available in relief.
Although North is somewhat new to deep playoff runs, Ardrey Kell is still just new. It's a second-year school that reached the second round last season, and Meadows said that, this year, Kell has an "unreal" team.
"They pitch it, they catch it, and they are very solid," Meadows said. "Darnell throws mid to upper 80s, and he has three pitches, and he is a bulldog. One of the scouting reports we got compared him to Jimmy Messer (of South Caldwell, a UNC recruit), and that's all you need to hear.... But we have some pretty good hitters in our lineup. It will be whoever blinks first, but I think our kids are battle-tested."
The top four batters in North's lineup were hitless in the first two playoff games, but Meadows said he hoped that their bats are coming around after Friday's 11-4 win over Watauga.
"I think this is the first game we have played this year where we are the underdog," Meadows said. "They are coming out of the best conference in the state in the Southwestern 4-A. It's a brutal conference. We are at No. 2 in our rotation, and they are at home.
"But Clay is up next, so he will go. Last year, we brought Zach back in round four on short rest, but (Ardrey Kell) has a lot of right-handed sticks, and Clay (a right-hander) is throwing it well."
South Caldwell beat North in the Western finals last season and went on to win the state title.
Bishop McGuinness had not won a playoff game since the early 1990s, according to Athletics Director Jeff Stoller, but has been on a roll since finishing fifth in the Northwest 1-A. The Villains, who have no seniors in the lineup, have rattled off three straight playoff wins to gain a rematch with conference rival South Stokes.
South, which won three state championships between 2002 and 2004, has 17-0 and 10-3 wins over McGuinness this season.
Coach Gary Nail of South admitted that he's surprised McGuinness has made it this far but said that his team would not overlook the Villains.
"They are playing pretty good baseball," Nail said of McGuinness.
"They are confident. We are going to face a totally different team than what we saw earlier, and we reminded our players that they are 3-0 and we are 3-0."
Also tonight, 11 area softball teams will play third-round games, and Ashe County is the next team with a chance to stop unbeaten Central Davidson's run for another 2-A state title. Central is 28-0, and Ashe is 11-8 heading into tonight's game at Central.
In another head-to-head matchup among area teams, Ledford (19-6) will play at Forbush (22-4) in Class 2-A.
Also, West Forsyth (23-4) and Glenn (21-4) are the only Forsyth County teams left in softball. West will play at Northwest Guilford (19-3) and Glenn will be at home against Hickory St. Stephens (22-4).
■ Mason Linker can be reached at 727-7324 or at mlinker@wsjournal.com.
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