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Aggies play Monday in SCBL playoff opener

By staff reports | The News Herald
Published: July 20, 2010

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MORGANTON --

The Southern Collegiate Baseball League’s regular season ended this past weekend, and divisional playoffs start today.

The Morganton Aggies, 24-17 overall and 9-9 in the league, will face the Statesville Owls, 21-17 and 9-7, starting at 7 p.m. on the Statesville High School field.

The Owls clinched homefield advantage in a makeup game Thursday when they downed the Aggies 1-0. The Owls defeated the Aggies in four of their six games this season.
If the Aggies win today’s game, they will play the winner of tonight’s Lake Norman-Fort Mill matchup.

SCBL is sanctioned by Major League Baseball and a member of the National Alliance of College Summer Baseball. The league covers a territory from northeast Tennessee through the Piedmont of North Carolina to the upstate of South Carolina.

Last year’s returning teams are the Morganton Aggies; Lake Norman Copperheads; Carolina Stingers from Fort Mill, S.C.; Asheville Redbirds; Spartanburg (S.C.) Blue Eagles; Carolina Chaos from Clemson, S.C.; and the two-time defending-champion Tennessee Tornado of Johnson City, Tenn.

Earlier this year, the league added its eighth member, the Statesville Owls, and adopted a new divisional structure.

Each team plays every other team six times during the 42-game season in June and July. Each team gets home-field advantage for three of the six meetings, playing one nine-inning game and a doubleheader of two seven-inning games at each venue.

The East and West divisional playoffs pit the first- and fourth-place teams and second- and third-place teams against each other. The higher seed gets home-field advantage. First-game winners face off for the division title.

The Aggies have the league’s best overall record, but the Lake Norman Copperheads lead the East league standings with a 12-4 record. The Copperheads will play the Carolina Stingers, 18-17 overall and 2-12 in league play, today in Huntersville.

The East and West division champions then play a three-game league championship series scheduled to start Thursday. Games 1 and 3 (if necessary) will be on the higher seed’s home field.

Aggies win last regular game

MORGANTON — The Morganton Aggies won their final regular-season home game, defeating the Tennessee Tornado, 4-3.

Winning pitcher and starter Corey Rhoney from Valdese threw five strikeouts and gave up two hits in his three innings. Steven Dyson in the fourth and fifth innings gave up two runs to Tennessee. Lucas Watson earned the save after the Tornado offense grounded out with the tieing run on third base.

The Aggies’ David Christy got two hits in three at-bats and scored a run. Ryan Bostian, Keith Whitman, Joe Mangum and Jordan Sells each got one hit in three at-bats.
Rain ended the second game of the doubeheader in the second inning.