Thursday, July 21, 2011 9:18 am
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The Forest City Heat, who won the 2010 state title in the 14-year-old division, repeated that feat over a month ago. Since that time, they have finished runner-up in two other tourneys, one in Augusta, Georgia and the other at a huge event in Arkansas.
This weekend will begin what could be a week long tourney for them as they compete for a YBOA national title in Orlando, Florida.
As for local Little League All-Star play, Chase’s 11 & 12-year-old softball team is hanging around as they knocked off Forest City 7-6 in the state tourney at Dunbar Park.
In the same category, Forest City’s All-Stars won their first game, but the loss to King and then Chase in back-to-back games, which eliminated the district one champs.
Rutherfordton’s 9 & 10-year-old softball all stars have survived two rounds, but one more loss will eliminate them at state. They beat Franklin on Monday to keep state title hopes alive.
District one 10-11 year old baseball champions, Rutherfordton fought tough, but lost two straight games as they were eliminated at the state level.
This Saturday, the county welcomes in two more State Little League tournaments, one at R-S Central High (Senior League baseball) and the other at Dunbar Park (Junior League Baseball). Two reasons to be aware is that these tournaments support kids involved in athletics and that they impact our local economy.
Plus, a ton of time and energy goes into these tournaments by way of locals such as Marion Mayse, Scott Rumfelt, Amy Clark, Terry and Donna Cobb, etc.
Congrats to Konstantine Diamaduros for making his mark in the Coastal Plain League. The Forest City Owl collected hits 158 and 159 last week to tie and then break the all-time CPL hit record for a career. The record was held by former Owl, Will Skinner.
On the NASCAR front, the Nextel Cup Series has the weekend off, but for three straight weeks, a new leader tops the points standings. While Ryan Newman badly needed a win and got it at New Hampshire, Carl Edwards returns to the points lead.
There is one thing for sure -- parody in the new NASCAR points system. Kevin Harvick led three weeks ago, Kyle Busch the week before that and now Edwards returns to the top of the ladder.
Supposedly, NASCAR boss, Mike Helton also told Kevin Harvick that he couldn’t touch Kyle Busch the rest of the year on the racetrack. It’s not possible! The two are racing for a championship this season and they are going to have to battle each other on the track, whether NASCAR likes it or not.
World Cup Soccer is always intriguing, whether it’s the men or women playing. In a country, that has fallen on some tough times lately, the United States could have used a World Cup title to give -- us -- as a nation, a small boost of sorts.
However, it was the Japanese who won 3-1 in the penalty kick phase after 120 minutes of play couldn’t settle the score, knotted at 2-2. The sad part, the U.S. took the lead twice and Japan never did until penalty kicks occurred. Not only that, the U.S. flat out dominated most of the World Cup final, but the Japanese defense held when it needed too.
Atlanta’s Braves continues to stay atop the wildcard standings, just 3.5 games back of the Phillies in the National League East baseball race, but there are over 60 contest to go at this moment in time.
Right now, it’s Nolan Ryan’s Texas Rangers that are doing some damage. Texas has won 11 in a row and the pitching isn’t too bad either, allowing just two runs or less in seven of those contests.