BLACK MOUNTAIN\u00a0\u2014 The Surry County 11U Cal Ripken All-Stars moved one step closer to the World Series with an impressive showing at the Western North Carolina State Championship June 24-27.<\/p>\n
Surry compiled a 6-1 record during the state tournament in Black Mountain, advancing to the championship game before finishing as runner-up to the Sandhills All-Stars from Pinehurst. The second-place finish earned Surry a berth in the Southeast Regional Tournament, which will be held July 15-18 in Lawrenceburg, Tennessee.<\/p>\n
The regional champion advances to the 11U Cal Ripken World Series in Crown Point, Indiana.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery kid on our team contributed to our success in the state tournament,\u201d Surry head coach Mark Hauser said. \u201cOur main goal was to qualify for the regional, which we did by beating South Charlotte to make the championship game, but we also wanted to win the whole tournament as well. Our guys played their hearts out and left it all on the field.\u201d<\/p>\n
Surry is led by Hauser and assistant coaches Ted Creed and Corey Carson. Team members include: Nolan Kelley, Tucker Creed, Bentley Carson, Maverick Harrison, Phoenix Murphy, Henry Hauser, Adyn Hall, Chet Cook, Jaxon Simmons, Eric Combs, Keegan Goad and Macon Wilmoth.<\/p>\n
The Road to Regionals<\/p>\n
Surry wasted little time establishing itself as one of the tournament favorites, sweeping pool play with victories over McDowell County, South Park and Piedmont to earn the No. 3 overall seed entering bracket play.<\/p>\n
After falling behind McDowell County 5-1 early, Surry chipped away with one run in the third inning before erupting for four runs in both the fourth and fifth innings to complete a 10-5 comeback victory. Tucker Creed started on the mound before Simmons earned the win in relief, and Henry Hauser recorded the save with a scoreless inning. Surry finished with 11 hits.<\/p>\n
The offense and pitching clicked together in the second game as Surry blanked South Park 8-0.<\/p>\n
Hauser threw 3 1\/3 hitless innings with six strikeouts before Cook completed the shutout over the final 1 2\/3 innings. Carson led the offense with a 3-for-3 performance, while Creed drove in two runs. Hauser, Simmons and Hall each collected two hits and an RBI.<\/p>\n
Pool play concluded with another comeback effort.<\/p>\n
Surry raced to a 7-0 lead against Piedmont before Piedmont scored nine unanswered runs. Facing the tournament time limit, Surry responded with seven runs in the bottom of the fourth inning to claim a 14-9 victory.<\/p>\n
Hauser highlighted the comeback by driving in four runs and stealing home to put Surry back in front. Murphy reached base safely in three of four plate appearances and stole five bases, Combs went 2-for-2, Carson added another multi-hit game and Harrison drove in a run.<\/p>\n
The strong showing in pool play earned Surry a first-round bye before bracket play.<\/p>\n
No. 3-seeded Surry rolled past No. 6 Mooresville 10-0 after scoring seven runs in the opening inning. Creed limited Mooresville to one hit over three scoreless innings before Carson closed out the shutout. Carson and Cook reached base in both plate appearances, while Harrison, Nolan Kelley and Murphy each drove in a run.<\/p>\n
With a trip to the Southeast Regional on the line, Surry turned in another dominant performance against No. 7 South Charlotte.<\/p>\n
Hauser allowed one run over four innings while striking out seven as Surry claimed a 10-1 victory. Carson and Simmons each recorded two hits, Creed drove in three runs and Hall added two RBIs. Hauser reached base safely in all three plate appearances and scored three runs, while Kelley and Cook also contributed hits.<\/p>\n
Surry’s championship run ended with a 15-0 loss to Sandhills in the title game. The top-seeded Sandhills squad outscored opponents 50-4 in pool play and 35-5 in bracket play.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s impressive to me that these young men from a smaller county in western North Carolina can go out and beat teams from these larger cities like Charlotte,\u201d Hauser said. \u201cIt\u2019s a testament to the young men, their ability as baseball players, and the parents and coaches from around our area that devote so much time making them not only great baseball players but young men as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite the loss in the championship game, Surry’s combination of balanced pitching, timely hitting and resilience throughout the tournament earned the team a chance to continue its season.<\/p>\n
Next up is the Southeast Regional Tournament, which will pit Surry against the top teams from eastern North Carolina, Florida, Tennessee, Georgia, South Carolina and Virginia with a trip to the 11U Cal Ripken World Series on the line.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will carry the North Carolina flag to represent our state in the opening ceremonies on Tuesday followed by a wiffle ball tournament that night,\u201d Hauser said. \u201cThen on Wednesday we will hit the field for real. Hopefully we can continue to win and advance to the World Series next month.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese boys love to compete, and I\u2019m sure they will continue to represent our area well.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BLACK MOUNTAIN\u00a0\u2014 The Surry County 11U Cal Ripken All-Stars moved one step closer to the World Series with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":745022,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2288],"tags":[92481,5,2314,2317,2313,92480,2413,19,2310,2328,2304,2318,2308,2319,4,2305,2303,2358,92479,1697,1039],"class_list":["post-745021","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb-postseason","tag-babe-ruth-league","tag-baseball","tag-baseball-finals","tag-baseball-games","tag-baseball-playoffs-and-champions","tag-carolina-sandhills","tag-champion-seasons-in-major-league-baseball","tag-major-league-baseball","tag-major-league-baseball-competitions","tag-major-league-baseball-playoffs","tag-major-league-baseball-postseason","tag-major-league-baseball-seasons","tag-major-league-baseball-teams","tag-major-league-baseball-teams-seasons","tag-mlb","tag-mlb-playoffs","tag-mlb-postseason","tag-north-carolina","tag-surry-county","tag-tournament","tag-world-series"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/745021","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=745021"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/745021\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/745022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=745021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=745021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=745021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}