State Champs!

Published 3:17 pm Wednesday, July 25, 2018

ASHEBORO – A walk-off two-run double by Alden Cottle ended an early-afternoon slugfest here Wednesday as Windsor Post 37 blanked Mocksville Post 54/174 by a score of 10-0 in a run-ruled five inning final in the North Carolina Junior American Legion Baseball state championship game.

Coaches and players representing Windsor’s American Legion Post 37 junior baseball team stand victorious on Wednesday at McCrary Field in Asheboro, the site of their state tournament championship. Photo from Mindy Raynor’s Facebook Page

Cottle was also the winning pitcher, twirling a two-hit shutout. Windsor, meanwhile, banged out 13 hits and played flawlessly in the field, committing no errors.

Windsor – who won the Area One title to qualify for the state tournament – finishes the season with an unblemished mark: 23-0.

The game – now a one-game affair, instead of a best-of-three – was moved first from Manteo’s Coy Tillet Field where the entire state tournament was to take place. That eight-team event began last Friday. After heavy rains pelted the coast, preventing Monday’s four-team semi-final between the Rebels, Mocksville, Rutherford Post 423 and South Caldwell Post 29, officials then decided to make the championship a winner-take-all one-game finale.

The trouble was finding a dry ball field.

The game was first moved to Minges-Overton Ballfield at Pitt Community College in Winterville for a Tuesday start, but the summer soaker continued and eventually that game was washed out.

Finally, officials settled on McCrary Field in Asheboro as the venue with a 1 p.m. Wednesday start.

The Rebels are expected back in Windsor and Williamston sometime later Wednesday evening.

Full details on the game will be available in Saturday’s edition of the Roanoke-Chowan News-Herald.