BY STEVE HANF
SALISBURY POST

The best baseball players in the state are gathering Thursday, and not for the first time in many instances.

When the American Legion Baseball Tournament opens from Garner High School, eight teams will strive for one prize — the North Carolina championship and a trip to the regionals in Albany, Ga.

Fighting for first place is nothing new for most of these players. In fact, a few rematches will take center stage at the double-elimination event.

Shelby High School claimed the N.C. High School Athletic Association Class 2A state championship in baseball this spring and now its Legion team, Post 82, owns the Area IV title as well.

The team it beat to end the high school season? Greene Central, which sent seven of its players on to the Snow Hill Post 94 squad, the Area I champ.

Those three teams won’t meet in Thursday’s four first-round games, but could clash again as early as Friday.

Seed: Area I champion

Coach: James “Rabbit” Fulghum

Record: 22-12

Post: 94

Rowan County baseball fans should remember the Rabbit and his star players quite well. Greene Central’s crew knocked off Bill Kesler’s Cavaliers in three games in the 2000 state finals. Current Rowan players Aaron Rimer, Jimbo Davis, Brandon Doby, Phillip Goodman and Keith Cauble remain from that North team.

Snow Hill’s current crop of stars includes three Suttons and hot-hitting Jon Davis from the Rams’ title winner. Their bid for back-to-back crowns was foiled by Shelby High this past May.

Fulghum’s squad got off to a slow start in the Legion season thanks to a very balanced, competitive league. Snow Hill ended the regular season 13-10, tied for fifth place, and was a No. 6 seed in the postseason.

“You had trouble for seven, eight, nine innings during the regular season,”Fulghum said. “The league was very deep in pitching and most anybody could beat most anybody else.”

That paid off during Snow Hill’s postseason run, though. The team lost just two games in beating Wilson,Wayne County and Garner for the Area I title.

“Everything kind of fell in place,”Fulghum said. “The bats have come to life at the right time.”

Snow Hill has only 12 home runs this summer, but its first five batters top the .300 mark. Catcher Mike Ange, from West Craven, leads the team with a .359 batting average, Marc Sutton is hitting .340 and twin brother Matt is at .311. Their cousin, Jessie, is batting .290 from the six-hole.

Pitcher Ricky Shefka, the likely starter against Rutherford, is also batting .312. Matt Sutton (6-2) will pitch on Friday and Tarboro left-hander Will Anderson (5-2) would get the nod in Snow Hill’s third game.

Seed: Area I runner-up

Coach: Moe Barbour

Record: 28-10

Post: 232

Garner knew a long time ago it had a berth in the state tournament. It didn’t take long this summer to prove it belonged, either.

“I didn’t want to back into the state championship,”head coach Moe Barbour told the Garner News after his team finished in the top two in Area I. “I don’t want people coming into our ballpark wanting to play us because they think we don’t deserve to be there.”

Recent history proves Garner belongs. Barbour led his team to the state title in 1999, making Garner the only Wake County squad to win it all since 1925.

Two players remain from that team. Shortstop Cole Franks started, while catcher Mark Carver, the power-hitting cleanup man this year, came off the bench for that team.

Garner’s offense doesn’t have to score in bunches for the team to win, as Barbour’s pitching staff goes eight deep. Garner High’s Chris Lawhorn is the likely Game 1 starter, while fellow right-handers Jason Newman and Bryan Powell, along with lefty Brandon Shipwash, have shut down the opposition all summer.

Seed: Area II champion

Coach: Keith Moore

Record: 32-2

Post: 10

Thanks to a mere two losses all summer, most observers see Wilmington as the favorite this weekend.

That excludes head coach Keith Moore, of course.

“When you get to this point in the year with eight teams like this coming to one site, you can put the records out the window,”Moore said. “It’s all about who’s going to show up and play the best baseball. Every team here is capable of winning the tournament.”

Wilmington meets Rowan County in Thursday’s 1 p.m. game, a clash of Legion powerhouses that is a concern for both coaches.

“Coming out of the gate and trying to get your first win against a quality team like Rowan County is tough,”Moore said. “But it could give us some momentum going into the rest of the tournament.”

Post 10 ace Darryl Lawhorn is playing his final summer of Legion ball — before heading off to the East Carolina University team. He’s 10-0 with an unreal 0.56 earned run average this summer.

It doesn’t get much easier for Wilmington’s second foe. Darryl’s twin brother, Trevor, is 7-0. He’ll pitch for Division II Barton College in Wilson next season.

Moore said his team doesn’t hit for power, but tries to string hits together. Second baseman Nick Strickland leads the squad with a .379 average from the No. 2 spot, while shortstop Everett Kelly is batting .378 and Trevor Lawhorn is at .365.

Led by its potent pitching, Wilmington breezed through the postseason, beating Pleasure Island, Duplin County and Scotland County. Despite being out of the postseason, Pleasure Island is the only team in the state to say it beat Wilmington — once in the regular season and once in the five-game series.

Seed: Area II runner-up

Coach: Tommy Britt

Record: 23-11

Post: 50

Scotland County head coach Tommy Britt knows all about winning Legion state championships —he played on the Hamlet Post 49 team that knocked off Rowan in seven games for the state crown in 1979.

Britt also won a state title in 1982, and now he’s trying to lead a team that draws solely from Scotland High School to the N.C. championship.

Scotland County went through a pair of amazing series to reach the state tournament. In Round 1 against Pembroke, Scotland trailed 15-3 going into the eighth inning, scored three times to stave off the 10-run rule and won after scoring 10 runs in the bottom of the ninth to win it.

The next night at Pembroke, Scotland trailed 15-2 in the seventh, came back to tie the game in the ninth and lost in the bottom half.

The teams combined for 110 runs in the five-game series and played four one-run games. In the next series against Whiteville, there were four one-run games.

Post I champion Wilmington then swept Scotland.

Five seniors propel Britt’s team. Leadoff man Eddie Wagner, all-state shortstop Jason Litchford, third baseman Matt Skamperle and second baseman Will Clark have been hitting the ball well in the postseason, boasting averages of .350 or higher in the playoffs.

Senior John Ammons is the No. 1 hurler. The left-hander is 6-1 and leads a staff that, along with Litchford, also has a pair of rising sophomores in Tio McLean and Jonathan Chavis.

“They’ve carried us even though they’re a real young staff,”Britt said.

Scotland’s pitchers and its offense have advanced to the tournament despite the loss of former clean-up hitter and catcher Stewart Adams. The All-State football player, who participated in the East-West game recently, decided to concentrate on football and is already at Appalachian State.

Seed: Area III champion

Coach: Tony McKee

Record: 32-13

Post: 45

Rowan fans have seen enough of Asheboro already this summer. First South Rowan got beat in the semifinals of the Area III playoffs, then Tony McKee’s team toppled Rowan County in seven games.

Asheboro’s squad is a perfect mix of power, precision and pitching. Left fielder Ben Yow and first baseman Michael Stefanacci crashed home runs in the Area III finals. Leadoff man John Pugh was one of many willing bunters who continually test an infield.

Seed: Area IV champion

Coach: Mike Grayson

Record: 29-6

Post: 82

When Shelby knocked off Area IV powerhouse Cherryville to advance to the state tournament, it ended years of frustration against its rival. It also meant that Cherryville and last year’s state champ, Caldwell County, won’t be in Garner this weekend.

“We’re one of the teams that wasn’t supposed to be here,”Shelby head coach Mike Grayson said. “We’ve been down for a while and we’re trying to make a little comeback. It’s been 27 years since we’ve been Area IV champions.”

Grayson said his team doesn’t have a staff ace, just pitching by committee. And Shelby doesn’t hit for power: lots of contact, defense and hurlers throwing strikes.

It’s been a successful formula to this point, even without one of its best hitters. Jonathan Darnell played just one game in the finals against Rutherford after running into the outfield fence and bruising his knee in the Cherryville series. He’s still questionable for the tournament.

Grayson lists his top hitters as Brody Taylor, Jason Gold, Adam Floyd, Tyler Falls and Jamie Ray. “We just swing the bat, try to put it in play and hope good things happen.”

“This group just likes to play, and they play hard,”Grayson said.

Seed: Area IV runner-up

Coach: Chris White

Record: 25-12

Post: 423

Rutherford County was supposed to be here last year.

Head coach Chris White said his 2000 team was even better than his current crop of players. But Caldwell County knocked Rutherford out in 2000 in the bottom of the ninth inning of Game 5 before eventually winning the state tournament.

This year, Rutherford came through in Game 5 against Caldwell County — in the bottom of the 10th.

“I knew we’d be strong pitching, it was just a matter of playing good defense and hitting the baseball,”White said. “We’re pretty fortunate to be where we’re at. Last year was our most talented team.”

White’s team has done it with plenty of pitching and just enough hitting. The team batting average stands at .270, while the team ERA is 2.77. Both numbers, but especially the pitching, are stunning for aluminum bats.

Left-hander Matt Tipton leads the staff with a 6-1 record, while fellow lefty Josh Fish leads the team is strikeouts and is 6-4. Right-hander Melvin Digh enters the tournament with a 7-3 record.

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Contact Steve Hanf at 704-797-4287 or shanf@salisburypost.com .