Rocky Mount Academy baseball beats Faith Christian when it counts
By FOSTER LANDER / ROCKY MOUNT TEKEGRAM
Faith Christian beat its neighborhood rivals Rocky Mount Academy twice this year in the regular season, but the Eagles saved Pat Smith yet more hand-wringing by beating the Patriots, 4-1, on Thursday night in the second round of the North Carolina Independent Schools Athletic Association state baseball playoffs.
Faith Christian won the two regular season meetings – 3-2 in 11 innings on March 24, and 4-3 in nine innings on April 21 – each time thanks to the pitching of sophomore Landen Roupp, who struck out 30 in his 14 innings of work.
Much like the two previous years, though, Rocky Mount Academy saved its best to again knock Faith Christian out of the playoffs.
“Third time was the charm,” Eagles coach Pat Smith said on Friday afternoon. “It’s been a dogfight all year. Talk about a pretty good rivalry that’s been hotly contested. I’m sure they’re getting tired of us beating them in the playoffs by now.”
Roupp threw all seven innings of Thursday night’s game and struck out 11, but Rocky Mount Academy senior Justin Hicks was just as good in holding Faith Christian to one run over six-plus innings of work. Sophomore Reid Johnston got the final three outs and also delivered the decisive two-run, bases-loaded single for a 3-1 Eagles lead – after just missing an extra-base hit down the right field line moments earlier.
Smith said Hicks’ curveball was as effective as it has been all season and that the right-hander was able to throw it for strikes even when behind in counts. Hicks may well start the Eagles’ next playoff game, tentatively set for Tuesday, against the winner of Kinston Parrott and Charlotte Northside Christian.
Faith Christian was dealt a major blow in the third inning of Thursday’s game when Rocky Mount Academy’s Linwood Jones clattered into Patriots first baseman Matt Sanderford as he attempted to catch a throw that sailed to the home-plate side of the bag.
Sanderford, one of Faith Christian’s hottest hitters over the last month, left the game and was taken to the hospital with a ‘soft tissue’ injury to his left arm.
Patriots coach Greg Clifton said he and his staff thought Sanderford had caught the ball with his foot on the base prior to the collision, but Jones was ruled safe.
As Sanderford laid on the dirt in a heap, the ball rolled away and Rocky Mount Academy’s Paul King scored the game’s first run.
Ben Lewis tied the game at one apiece with a sacrifice fly, but it was the only run a Faith Christian offense that struggled mightily over the season’s final weeks could muster.
“Hicks just went out there and competed, and sometimes you just have to tip your cap,” Clifton said. “They made every play and they capitalized on every mistake we made.”
The Patriots did start the bottom of the seventh inning with the first two batters reaching base off Hicks, prompting Smith to call on Johnston, who managed to close out Faith Christian with neither runner coming around to score.
Parrott, the No. 3 seed in the NCISAA 2-A playoffs, and Northside Christian play this afternoon. On paper, Parrott looks likely to advance and host Rocky Mount Academy in Kinston on Tuesday.
If that’s the case, the Eagles won’t be unfamiliar with their opponents – Parrott beat Smith’s team by one run in Faith Christian’s early-season tournament back in March.
To get there, though, a Rocky Mount Academy bunch that failed to make clutch plays in its losses to Faith Christian finally got it done in crunch time on Thursday.
“When you play 27 innings over three games and ain’t nobody outscored the other by more than one run, every play is magnified,” Smith said. “I’m just glad it wasn’t us that had to lose this time around.”
By FOSTER LANDER / ROCKY MOUNT TEKEGRAM
Faith Christian beat its neighborhood rivals Rocky Mount Academy twice this year in the regular season, but the Eagles saved Pat Smith yet more hand-wringing by beating the Patriots, 4-1, on Thursday night in the second round of the North Carolina Independent Schools Athletic Association state baseball playoffs.
Faith Christian won the two regular season meetings – 3-2 in 11 innings on March 24, and 4-3 in nine innings on April 21 – each time thanks to the pitching of sophomore Landen Roupp, who struck out 30 in his 14 innings of work.
Much like the two previous years, though, Rocky Mount Academy saved its best to again knock Faith Christian out of the playoffs.
“Third time was the charm,” Eagles coach Pat Smith said on Friday afternoon. “It’s been a dogfight all year. Talk about a pretty good rivalry that’s been hotly contested. I’m sure they’re getting tired of us beating them in the playoffs by now.”
Roupp threw all seven innings of Thursday night’s game and struck out 11, but Rocky Mount Academy senior Justin Hicks was just as good in holding Faith Christian to one run over six-plus innings of work. Sophomore Reid Johnston got the final three outs and also delivered the decisive two-run, bases-loaded single for a 3-1 Eagles lead – after just missing an extra-base hit down the right field line moments earlier.
Smith said Hicks’ curveball was as effective as it has been all season and that the right-hander was able to throw it for strikes even when behind in counts. Hicks may well start the Eagles’ next playoff game, tentatively set for Tuesday, against the winner of Kinston Parrott and Charlotte Northside Christian.
Faith Christian was dealt a major blow in the third inning of Thursday’s game when Rocky Mount Academy’s Linwood Jones clattered into Patriots first baseman Matt Sanderford as he attempted to catch a throw that sailed to the home-plate side of the bag.
Sanderford, one of Faith Christian’s hottest hitters over the last month, left the game and was taken to the hospital with a ‘soft tissue’ injury to his left arm.
Patriots coach Greg Clifton said he and his staff thought Sanderford had caught the ball with his foot on the base prior to the collision, but Jones was ruled safe.
As Sanderford laid on the dirt in a heap, the ball rolled away and Rocky Mount Academy’s Paul King scored the game’s first run.
Ben Lewis tied the game at one apiece with a sacrifice fly, but it was the only run a Faith Christian offense that struggled mightily over the season’s final weeks could muster.
“Hicks just went out there and competed, and sometimes you just have to tip your cap,” Clifton said. “They made every play and they capitalized on every mistake we made.”
The Patriots did start the bottom of the seventh inning with the first two batters reaching base off Hicks, prompting Smith to call on Johnston, who managed to close out Faith Christian with neither runner coming around to score.
Parrott, the No. 3 seed in the NCISAA 2-A playoffs, and Northside Christian play this afternoon. On paper, Parrott looks likely to advance and host Rocky Mount Academy in Kinston on Tuesday.
If that’s the case, the Eagles won’t be unfamiliar with their opponents – Parrott beat Smith’s team by one run in Faith Christian’s early-season tournament back in March.
To get there, though, a Rocky Mount Academy bunch that failed to make clutch plays in its losses to Faith Christian finally got it done in crunch time on Thursday.
“When you play 27 innings over three games and ain’t nobody outscored the other by more than one run, every play is magnified,” Smith said. “I’m just glad it wasn’t us that had to lose this time around.”
