Fitzpatrick-Kaspar battle set for today

By Rudy Coggins
Published in Sports on April 25, 2013 1:47 PM

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They've each earned a regional berth, but their their seeding is a different matter.

Eastern Wayne teammates Chaz Fitzpatrick and Mitchell Kaspar square off this afternoon to determine the Eastern Carolina 3-A Conference men's singles champion on their home court.

Fitzpatrick, the reigning ECC title holder, posted three consecutive shutouts to reach the finals. Kaspar, the No. 2 seed, lost just seven games in three singles victories.

"Mitchell played extremely well today and hustled to get many balls back in play," EW head coach Craig Hassell said. "He has improved vastly in the last two years in footwork and racquet preparation. Chaz continues to play well and can hopefully carry this momentum over into next week's (dual-team) playoffs and regional matches.

"The matches will get tougher over the court of the next two weeks as Chaz's experience and talent will be needed (to advance)."

Joining the Warriors in next week's N.C. High School Athletic Association regional at Barton College in Wilson are Aycock's doubles of Will Hoff-Allan Best and Chas Hooks-Jackson Yelverton.

Hoff-Best rallied from a 5-3 deficit in a second-set tiebreaker to eliminate North Lenoir's Phillip Waltz-Austin Worley 6-2, 7-6 (7) in quarterfinal-round play. The duo fell to the Hawks' Evan Kramer-Will Hardy in the semifinals and bounced back to beat Hooks-Yelverton 8-5 in the third-place match.

Hooks-Yelverton, the No. 4 seed, knocked out Southern Wayne's tandem of Sam Henderson-Andrew Medlin 6-0, 6-1 in the quarterfinals. Hooks-Yelverton fell in the semifinals to Cleveland's Jesse Olmstead-Dylan Betancourt, who emerged the ECC doubles champions.

"It was nice to qualify two doubles teams to the regional," CBA head coach Luke Vail said. "Will and Allan had a good chance to force a tiebreaker in the first set of the semifinals, but Evan and Will stepped up their game and made some big shots.

"Hopefully, the tournament play will take our game to a higher level for the dual-team playoffs starting next Tuesday."

Aycock's Stanton Head advanced past the first round, but fell to Fitzpatrick in the quarterfinals.

Eastern Wayne's Sam Biggs, Sawyer Thompson, Andrew Baker and Hari Chitilla each lost in first-round play.

Southern Wayne's Garrett Hatsell secured a play-in victory and lost to Fitzpatrick. Teammates Bobby Stocks and the doubles of Jackson Carter-Wesley Dail each lost during the play-in round.