Rocky Mount's varsity baseball team, in hopes of defending its NCHSAA 3-A state title, got some help in that effort once the new school year kicked in last week. Two players have transferred into the program - and one of them made headlines just recently.
That player is junior pitcher Hobbs Johnson, who has come to RMHS from Rocky Mount Academy. Johnson has received a scholarship offer from the University of North Carolina, though he's two years away from enrolling as a Tar Heel.
Johnson (pictured), a mainstay of Coleman-Pitt Post 58's American Legion baseball team this past summer, is a lefty and certainly will be a welcomed addition to coach Pat Smith's pitching staff.
He'll join Benton Moss, Dillon Cockrell, Matthew Berry, Parker Helms and Nick Hahula on the staff.Also moving into the varsity program will be Michael Whitehead, a junior second baseman, who has transferred from Hobgood Academy.
NO EASTER TOURNAMENT: I have received some bad news about the baseball season next spring. The school's annual Gryphons Easter Baseball Tournament, a staple of RM's spring season since 1977, will not be played next year.
With the Easter/Spring Break school playing dates getting bounced all over the place the last few years, it's become increasingly harder to get enough teams to fill out the field. Last year's event was stuck with just six teams instead of its traditional eight-team bracket.
This coming year, Smith was faced with the daunting task of getting five teams to add to Northern Nash, Southern Nash and RMHS. Nash Central has jumped ship and will play in a baseball tournament at Knightdale High next Easter. Smith had no success finding teams to fill the brackets.
I think Stacey Alston, former Bulldog head baseball coach and now assistant principal at Knightdale, may have had a little something to do with Nash Central's move westward!
Anyway, RMHS fans will see two teams on the new 2009 schedule that haven't appeared on it in a while.
The Gryphons have added a home-and-home matchup with Durham Riverside and they will play an endowment game at Tarboro.
They will also return to the Impact Baseball Challenge at Cary's USA Baseball Complex. Their opponent there is not yet known.
(Photo/David Hahula)