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Burns won their final two games, while East earned a split for the week as a lost to Shelby produced the shared SMAC crown outcome.
However, all is not lost for East and two other county baseball teams in general who have made the playoffs which start this Friday. East Rutherford will host North Lincoln as a No.1 seed and have home field advantage throughout the postseason since the SMAC has seeding priority this time around in NCHSAA weird playoff system. That would take forever to explain. Trust me!
They didn’t get the No.1 seed out of the Western Highlands Conference, but Thomas Jefferson (10-9) will host either Murphy or Swain at McNair on Friday. Last year, TJCA fell short in their first ever baseball playoff appearance.
R-S Central will travel to Erwin on Friday and have struggled down the stretch. However, they too have played tough in the postseason over the year.
On the softball diamond, it gets even more interesting.
Chase and East Rutherford shared the regular season SMAC crown, but had to play for the No.1 seed out of the 2A portion on Tuesday (5.7.12) to break the SMAC tie between the two. The winner gets East Lincoln on Friday at home and the loser will host Mountain Heritage, Friday. And for thought, Chase beat East last week, 14-8.
It could complicate things for East, who played a makeup contest with R-S Central on Monday and will now play three times this week. However, the Lady Cavs have been road warriors the past two seasons during the playoffs.
R-S Central, who finished up third in conference overall has the No. 1 3A seed and will face Ashbrook at home on possibly Thursday, but at press time was still slated for Friday.
In girls soccer, Thomas Jefferson earned a 1A playoff spot as a wildcard posting a 14-4 record, but will travel to the Highlands who have a 7-10 record on the season. If the Lady Gryphons win, they most likely will hit the road to play Hendersonville for a third time this season on Saturday, which is a shame. There is no real reason for the two solid clubs to be facing off in the second round and TJCA has lost both meetings this year to Hendy.
Chase hosted Polk in first round 2A action, while R-S Central hit the road to play Enka on Wednesday night (5/9/12).
As for the new conferences that will begin next year, R-S Central, Chase and East Rutherford will be in a nine-team league that also has Shelby, Crest, Kings Mountain, Burns, Draughn and East Burke.
I think that league is too big and it’s not rational. Plus, it will be six 2A teams pitted with three 3A teams in a split conference. Most everybody isn’t happy with realignment this time around, but the board has finalized the conferences after many schools appealed a few weeks back.
Thomas Jefferson will join Gaston, Lincoln County schools, but even Mooresville, Lake Norman and into Davidson County too. So much for keeping conferences close and expenses down.
On the NASCAR scene, the Cup Series heads to Darlington. Last year, it was the site of Kevin Harvick and Kyle Busch sparred, while Regan Smith took home his first ever victory in the series. As a wishful thinker, I am hoping for a little more of that NASCAR action on Saturday night.
NASCAR Beef of the week: I know there are Danica Patrick lovers and haters out there, but what she did at the end of the Nationwide race was uncalled for in Talladega.
Patrick was racing to the finish line when Sam Hornish Jr. went up the track and pinched her into the wall at the line. However, hooking somebody into the turn one wall at Talladega after the checkered flag isn’t very smart. At the angle Hornish hit the wall, it could have been much worse, but luckily he was slowed down enough to not be injured. While some may or may not believe his story, Hornish said a right front tire was going down just a few seconds before crossing the line finish line. After carefully looking at video evidence, I actually believe his story. It’s rare that I believe one of those stories and at first I really didn’t believe it at all.
