The Mocksville Legion baseball team got off to a brutal 0-3 start last weekend, losing 9-6 at Asheboro, 12-6 at home to Eastern Randolph and 12-8 at Eastern Randolph.
The good news is all three were non-league games. But even though Mocksville is 0-0 in the division, the start battered Mocksville’s psyche.
“They’re freakin’ gorillas,” second-year coach Charles Kurfees said of the opponents. “We’ve faced some freakin’ studs. We’re not playing any cupcakes, that’s for darn sure. And this schedule is fixing to pick up. We’re going to play eight games in nine nights. We’re going to see what we’re made of.”
There have been few highlights. Mocksville’s pitching struggled throughout the weekend, and it managed just seven hits in Sunday’s 12-8 loss at ER.
“We haven’t had pitching,” Kurfees said. “I think we’re OK defensively and at the plate. We’ve just got to find some pitching.”
One solid stint on the mound came from an unlikely source, Carson Bishop, who pitched on the JV as a Davie freshman. In Sunday’s game, he gave up four runs in five innings – but he retired the last nine.
“And they didn’t change their lineup,” Kurfees said. “They kept those same gorillas in there.”
Kurfees has been impressed with outfielder Bryce Merritt, a Legion newcomer from Forbush.
“Merritt is pretty good,” he said …