Prep baseball roundup

By News-Argus Staff
Published in Sports on March 4, 2004 1:56 PM

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HARRELLS -- A three-run rally in the bottom of the seventh gave North Duplin coach Rob Futch his first win as a head coach as the Rebels beat Harrells Christian Academy 5-4 Wednesday night.

Harrells scored in the first when Jim Wells singled to score a run following a lead off walk to Steven Skinner.

The Chargers scored three more runs in the second, the big hit coming from Chad Joyner's two-run single. North Duplin's Matt Braswell, Travis Dubois, and Sterling Grice worked successfully on the mound the rest of the way to hold the score at 4-0.

"Braswell, Dubois, and Grice had a great game pitching wise," said Futch. "To hold a loaded team like Harrells to four hits, and none of them had any command of their breaking stuff, says a lot to me. I was pleased that Grice had the opportunity to get in and have some success quick as a freshman. He has a great make-up as a pitcher and is going to be a good player for us down the road."

In the bottom of the sixth inning Dubois singled for the Rebels and Braswell walked to lead off the inning. Charlton Armwood walked to load the bases. Ryan Tillman had an RBI fielder's choice to score Dubois, and Braswell took advantage of a lax moment on defense to also score on the play.

In the bottom of the seventh, freshman Grice lead off with a hot single to short, and Phillip Lampron doubled to put the tying runs in scoring position with no out. Following a strikeout, Dubois singled to score Grice, and stole second. Braswell scored both runners with a long double into the left-center field gap for the 5-4 win.

"The day sure didn't start too well," said Futch. "We had the jitters, all of us, and it showed. This was my first time out as a head varsity coach, and I was nervous about the job I had to do, and about facing (Harrells coach) Tom Teachey, whom I played Legion ball for and respect greatly. That may have bled over to the men as well. It's amazing the amount of influence the mood of a coach has on a team."

The two teams were well acquainted with each other. In addition to Futch playing legion ball for Teachey, Harrells' Jamie Quinn played for Futch as a JV player at James Kenan, while Jim Wells was North Duplin's catcher last year.

"We received a lot of comments tonight about the way we fought back and handled ourselves," said Futch. "I think that is as big a compliment as we can get."

North Duplin (1-0) will travel to Union on Friday. Harrells is now 0-2 on the season.

Harrells 130 000 0 -- 4 4 1

North Duplin 000 002 3 -- 5 5 1

Leading hitters - Harrells -- Chad Joyner 1-3, 2 RBI, Jim Wells 1-3, RBI. North Duplin -- Travis Dubois 2-3, SB, 2 runs, RBI; Matt Braswell 1-2, 2B, run, 2 RBI; Phillip Lampron 1-3, 2B, run; Sterling Grice 1-2, run.

IP H R ER BB SO

Harrells

Brick Rooks 5 1 2 0 4 9

John Whittaker (L) 1 1/3 0 0 0 2 1

North Duplin

Matt Braswell 3 2/3 4 4 3 3 3

Travis Dubois 1 1/3 0 0 0 2 1

Sterling Grice (W) 2 0 0 0 1 1