Lee County will face some of the best high school baseball teams in the country this week during the National High School Invitational tournament at the USA Baseball National Training Complex in Cary.
Sixteen teams from nine states will begin competition today in the single-elimination tournament.
Among the teams are Plantation (Fla.) American Heritage, which has nine Division I commitments; Las Vegas Bishop Gorman, which has won six straight Nevada state titles; Corpus Christi (Texas) Carroll, which is ranked No. 1 in the country; and Studio City (Calif.) Harvard-Westlake, which may have the best high school pitching rotation in the country with Lucas Giolito and Max Fried, both ranked among the top seven pitching prospects in the country.
The tournament will open today with American Heritage playing Oxford, Ala., at 11 a.m. Harvard-Westlake will play Seale (Ala.) Russell County at 1 p.m. Games are scheduled throughout the day with the final games of the day set for 4:30 p.m.
Lee County, the host school, will play its first game Thursday morning at 9:30. The Yellow Jackets will face Sarasota, Fla.
Competition continues through Saturday’s championship game at noon. For details see http://web.usabaseball.com.
Wakefield tennis impresses: The undefeated Wakefield boys’ tennis team streaked to its 10th straight victory Monday when it pounded traditional tennis power East Chapel Hill 8-1.
The Wolverines won five of six singles matches, all in straight sets, and swept the three doubles.
Wakefield was not in the N.C. Tennis Association preseason poll, but shot up to No. 2 after defeating 2011 4A champion Broughton. The Caps are No. 3.
Winston-Salem Reynolds leads the poll. Millbrook is No. 5 and East Chapel Hill is No. 7.
Cardinal Gibbons tops the 3A poll and Durham Science & Math is atop the 2A rankings.
Cap runner picks Wolfpack: Sam Roberson of Broughton, one of the top distance runners in the state, has committed to N.C. State. Roberson won the 2012 N.C. High School Athletic Association 4A indoor 3,200 title and led Broughton to the NCHSAA 4A cross country championship in 2011.
Roberson was a Nike Cross Country National Qualifier and was second in the NCHSAA 3,200 outdoors in 2011.
“N.C. State has a strong program and coach Rollie Geiger is a great coach,” Roberson said. “It is a good school academically. I had been thinking about the decision for a while and I like the team there. State was my favorite.”
Roberson also considered North Carolina and William & Mary.
High School Invitational golf: Broughton, Leesville Road, East Chapel Hill, Durham Riverside and Ravenscroft are among schools that will have a golfer competing in the sixth annual N.C. High School Invitational at Treyburn Country Club in Durham on Monday, beginning at 10 a.m.
Raven to Georgetown: Ravenscroft junior Taylor Ednie committed to play field hockey at Georgetown. She scored 10 goals and had seven assists last year in leading the Ravens to the N.C. Independent Schools Athletic Association championship game.
Dugal in spotlight: Gabi Dugal, who was in the spotlight in Scotty McCreery’s video of “The Trouble with Girls,” scored two goals Monday night in Garner’s 3-2 Greater Neuse 4A soccer win over Knightdale. She played McCreary’s lab partner in the video, which was filmed at Garner Magnet High.
Chapel Hill/Lincoln Hall: The Chapel Hill High/Lincoln High Hall of Fame will induct six athletes and one coach in its 11th annual class Saturday, April 14. The banquet. $25, will be at the Chapel Hill High cafeteria. For tickets, call 919-929-2106, ext. 42108.
The class includes James L. Jamerson (Class of 1959, swimming); Eugene C. Hines Jr (1965, football); Norman Glen Blackburn (1964, football, basketball and baseball); Charles Raymond Farrington Sr. (1967, football, basketball and baseball); Caleb Kimbrough (2004, football, basketball and tennis); Jared Campbell (2003, wrestling) and former tennis coach Nick Walker.
Stevens: 919-829-8910
