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| Wearing it proudly Ethan Simpson, who plays the pitcher position for the Riegelwood Dixie Youth Coach-Pitch (ages 8-under) All-Star baseball team, was struck in the forehead by a ball in last Thursday’s District 2 Tournament game with Bladen American. Simpson, the smallest player on the Riegelwood squad, was left with impressions of the ball’s stitch marks on his head, but he told his coach that he was otherwise fine and did not want to be removed from the game. Riegelwood won 9-5 and will compete in the North Carolina DY Coach-Pitch Tournament that will open this week at Tryon. The Nakina All-Stars will also be representing District 2 in the state tournament. Nakina will be making its third straight appearance in state tournament play. |
Nakina, Riegelwood set for state DY Coach-Pitch Tournament
A trek to the Gaston County community of Tryon for the North Carolina Dixie Youth Baseball Coach-Pitch (ages 8-under) Tournament is being undertaken by the Nakina and Riegelwood All-Star teams.
The opening ceremonies for the event will be held Friday evening with play in the 16-team tournament opening on Saturday.
Games will be played on fields at Tryon Optimist Park.
Tryon is located between Gastonia and Cherryville, west of Charlotte, and is not to be mistaken with the town of Tryon in Polk County.
Nakina, which has qualified for state tournament play for the third straight year, will go against South Stanly Saturday morning at 11. Riegelwood, making its first state Coach-Pitch Tournament appearance since 2003, will go take on the District 4B representative at 12:30 p.m. The District 4 Tournament has been heavily affected by rain and had not been completed as of Tuesday night.
The tournament is divided into two eight-team brackets. Each bracket will have double-elimination play with the two bracket winners meeting in a best-of three series for the championship. The tournament is scheduled to run through next Tuesday or Wednesday.
Nakina placed runnerup to Whiteville in last week’s District 2 tournament at Whiteville Optimist Park’s Harritan Field. However, Whiteville chose prior to district play that it would not send a team to state tournament play if it qualified.
Nakina, which finished runnerup in 2004 state tournament, advanced as the District 2 top seed and Riegelwood claimed the second District 2 berth in defeating Bladen American in a playoff game.
A win by Nakina Saturday morning would put it in a 4:30 p.m., winners bracket game Saturday against the Bessemer City-Cape Fear winner. A loss would put Nakina in a 2 p.m., Saturday losers bracket game against the Bessemer City-Cape Fear loser.
A win by Riegelwood in its opening-round game would put it against the Rosewood-Lumberton American winner on Saturday at 4:30 p.m. A loss by Riegelwood will have it going against the Rosewood-Lumberton American loser on Saturday at 2 p.m.