NCHSAA baseball championship preview

Some of the top players and teams in North Carolina high school baseball
will be trying to add hardware to their trophy cases this weekend in the
93rd annual North Carolina High School Athletic Association state baseball
championship series.

    The 2-A and 4-A series will get underway on Friday at Doak Field on the
campus of North Carolina State University, while the 1-A and 3-A will get
their series going on Friday at Five County Stadium in Zebulon, home of the
minor league Carolina Mudcats. All the series are best-of-three games, and
each of the teams in the finals survived best-of-three regional championship
series.

    In 4-A action, surprising Raleigh Sanderson (19-11) seeks its first
NCHSAA baseball championship and makes only its second finals appearance,
with a runner-up finish back in 1992. The Spartans will take on third-year
school Ardrey Kell of Charlotte (25-8), in the championship series for the
second straight year after falling to Greenville Rose in the 2008 finals.

    Sanderson, which was the third seed out of the Cap Seven, is a great
turnaround story since the Spartans posted a 3-20 record back in 2006 but
have a veteran corps of seniors who now play prominent roles.  Charles Wolfe
is the ’09 Cap Seven Player of the Year, batting a sizzling .450 to go with
a 7-6 mark on the mound and a 2.12 ERA.

    Kell overcame pesky North Davidson in the regional series and gets
excellent pitching from Alex Wood, who is headed to the University of
Georgia.

    The 2-A series has a team in its first final, Morganton Patton (27-7),
against Mayodan Dalton McMichael (25-6). The Fighting Phoenix of McMichael
is averaging 8.3 runs per game with a potent team batting average of .333.
Ethan Satterfield paces the Phoenix at the plate with a .413 average, seven
homers and 31 RBI.

    Patton, in only its second year of existence, perhaps expected some
eventual baseball greatness. Nine players on the Patton roster were part of
the Morganton Little League all-star team that finished seventh in the world
in the 2004 Little League World Series. Aaron Attaway is the Catawba Valley
Conference Player of the Year and is hitting .437 with eight homers and 32
RBI while Dykota Spiess is hitting .414.

    At Five County Stadium, the first game on Friday will start the 1-A
series in a battle between South Stanly (23-5) and Hampstead Topsail (24-6).

    Topsail is riding a 10-game winning streak into its second straight trip
to the state championship, where it lost last year in two straight to
Cherryville, but the Pirates have rebounded from a 7-8 mark midway through
the season. South Stanly bounced back from a 19-3 loss in its regular season
finale with a hot streak in the playoffs for the Rowdy Rebel Bulls and swept
defending state champ Cherryville in the West Regional series.

    The 3-A series sends Eastern Wayne (25-4) against Lake Norman (26-2).
Eastern Wayne, which won the 4-A crown in 1986, is currently riding a
nine-game winning streak. John Wooten has been the big gun for the Warriors
(.540 average, 16 homers, 51 RBI and 8-1 on the mound with 2.02 ERA).

    Lake Norman, which has been in the baseball playoffs three times in its
seven-year history, will counter with a strong defensive team and solid
pitching. Scottie Williams is 8-0 on the mound and soph Taylor Thurber
pitched well in the regional series. Nick Lomascolo’s two-out hit in the
bottom of the seventh was the clincher in the 7-6 final regional series win
over Waynesville Tuscola and Joe Faist leads the club in hitting with a .400
average.
   
NORTH CAROLINA HIGH SCHOOL ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION
2009 STATE BASEBALL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES

all series best of three games

CLASS 4-A: DOAK FIELD, NORTH CAROLINA STATE UNIVERSITY
RALEIGH SANDERSON (19-11) vs. CHARLOTTE ARDREY KELL (25-8)
                  Game 1: Friday, June 5 at 8 p.m.; Game 2: Saturday, June 6
at 2 pm; Game 3: if necessary, Saturday, June 6 at 8 pm (5 pm if no third
game in 2-A)

CLASS 3-A: FIVE COUNTY STADIUM, ZEBULON
EASTERN WAYNE (25-4) vs. LAKE NORMAN (26-2)
 Game 1: Friday, June 5, 8 pm.; Game 2: Saturday, June 6, 2 pm; Game 3: if
necessary, Saturday, June 6 at 8 pm (5 pm if no third game in 1-A)

CLASS 2-A: DOAK FIELD, NORTH CAROLINA STATE UNIVERSITY
MAYODAN DALTON MCMICHAEL  (25-6) vs. MORGANTON PATTON (27-7)
 Game 1: Friday, June 5, 5 pm; Game 2: Saturday, June 6, 11 am; Game 3: if
necessary, Saturday, June 6, 5 pm

CLASS 1-A: FIVE COUNTY STADIUM, ZEBULON
HAMPSTEAD TOPSAIL (21-10) vs. SOUTH STANLY (23-5)
 Game 1: Friday, June 5 at 5 pm.; Game 2: Saturday, June 6 at 11 am; Game 3:
if necessary, Saturday, June 6 at 5 pm