Baseball Britt, Berry headed to NCAA D-II Baseball Regionals

Rocky Mount native Britt Johnson has been hankering about getting closer to home. Now he has gotten his wish.

Johnson, an assistant baseball coach at Lander University (Greenwood, S.C.), has seen his team earn a berth in the 2012 NCAA Div. II Baseball Southeast Regionals which is being held at Mount Olive College beginning Thursday.

Lander received the No. 6 seed and will face top-seeded Mount Olive in their regional opener at 7 p.m. at Scarborough Field - the same stadium Wayne County Post 11's Legion baseball team calls home. Mount Olive is the second-ranked team in the nation.

With the same suspense the hoopsters at N.C. State went through when the Wolfpack was one of the last teams announced in the that field of 68 back in March, Britt, former Rocky Mount star Thomas Berry and the rest of the Bearcats were the last team announced to this field of 48.

Talk about being on pins and needles. I got  a feeling a lot of prayers were answered when Lander's name was broadcasted.

Even though Britt will be assisting Hank Jones with the Rocky Mount Coleman-Pitt Post 58 team this summer (the season starts next Wednesday), he would love to delay that move and stay alive in the D-II playoffs.

If these Bearcats can survive life in Wayne County, then they get to go to Wake County for the Div. II World Series. The USA Baseball Complex in Cary will serve as host of the event this year.

These guys won't be the least bit geographically-challenged by winning this postseason.

I can't say the same for Armstrong Atlantic.