6-12-21 roundup: College baseball, Legion baseball, Prep baseball, Pro baseball
By Richard Walker
Wingate University completed its comeback run through the NCAA Division II World Series to finish as 2021 baseball national champions.
And former Crest standout Logan McNeely was named tournament most valuable player after helping the Bulldogs beat Central Missouri 5-3 in Saturday’s championship game at the USA National Training Complex in Cary.
It capped a streak of five straight wins in elimination games for Wingate, which finished the season with a 39-13 and as the first South Atlantic Conference national baseball champion.
The Bulldogs also became the seventh N.C. college or university to win a national baseball title. The others are Wake Forest in 1955 (NCAA Division I), Wilmington in 1961 and 1963 (NJCAA Division I), North Carolina Wesleyan in 1989 and 1999 (NCAA Division II) and Mount Olive in 2008 (NCAA Division II).
Wingate became only the third team to win a title after losing in the opening in the eight-team tournament format – and first since 2005.
McNeely, a 2017 Crest High graduate, had one hit, two RBIs and a run scored to finish the tournament with 12 hits in 26 at-bats with six RBIs and four runs scored in six games.
Other local national champions for the Buldogs were Austin Mitchell (North Gaston 2018 graduate) and Brent Walls (Cherryville 2020).
McNeely was joined on the World Series all-tournament team by McCann Mellett, David Nash and Brody McCullough.
With Wingate trailing 3-2, McNeely drove in the tying run and later scored what proved to be the winning run in the bottom of the fifth inning.
Here are the full results for the 2021 NCAA Division II World Series:
June 5 games
Game 1 – No. 5 Tampa 7, No. 4 Trevecca Nazarene 6 (10 innings)
Game 2 – No. 1 Central Missouri 9, No. 8 Northwest Nazarene 3
June 6 games
Game 3 – No. 3 Angelo State 6, No. 6 Wingate 2
Game 4 – No. 2 Seton Hill 4, No. 7 Southern New Hampshire 3
June 7 games
Game 5 – Northwest Nazarence 9, Trevecca Nazarene 3
Game 6 – Central Missouri 8, Tampa 4
June 8 games
Game 7 – Wingate 3, Southern New Hampshire 2
Game 8 – Angelo State 9, Seton Hill 4
June 9 games
Game 9 – Wingate 5, Seton Hill 1
Game 10 – Tampa 5, Northwest Nazarene 2
June 10 game
Game 11 – Wingate 5, Angelo State 4
Friday’s games
Game 12 – Tampa 8, Central Missouri 1
Game 13 – Wingate 8, Angelo State 7 (11 innings)
Saturday, June 12
Game 14 – Central Missouri 3, Tampa 1
Championship game: Wingate 5, Central Missouri 3
Legion baseball
Rain wiped away the Gaston Braves opener on Saturday at Queen City.
The Braves will now open their season on Thursday at home against the Lincoln County Cardinals.
Other local divisional openers Sunday for Gastonia at Queen City, Wednesday for Cherryville at Hickory and June 20th for Cleveland County at Hickory.
High school baseball
Due to inclement weather across the state for much of the week, the N.C. High School Athletic Association will be postponed the release of next week’s state playoff pairings until Sunday.
Here are local high school baseball standings through Friday’s games with conference record first followed by overall record:
BIG SOUTH 3A
Crest 12-0, 12-0
Kings Mountain 10-2, 11-3
Forestview 7-5, 9-5
North Gaston 7-5, 8-6
Cramer 4-8, 6-8
Ashbrook 2-10, 2-12
Huss 0-12, 1-12
SOUTHWESTERN 2A
R-S Central 11-1, 12-2
South Point 9-3, 10-4
East Rutherford 7-5, 8-5
Chase 6-6, 8-6
East Gaston 5-7, 6-8
Burns 3-9, 4-10
Shelby 1-11, 1-13
SOUTH FORK 2A
East Lincoln 13-1, 13-1
North Lincoln 11-3, 11-3
Lk Norman Charter 10-4, 10-4
Maiden 9-5, 9-5
Bandys 6-8, 6-8
Lincolnton 4-10, 4-10
West Lincoln 2-12, 2-12
Newton-Conover 1-13, 1-13
SOUTHERN PIEDMONT 1A
Cherryville 11-1, 13-1
Lincoln Charter 11-1, 13-1
Christ the King 8-4, 9-5
Highland Tech 5-7, 6-7
Thomas Jefferson 5-7, 6-8
Bessemer City 2-10, 2-12
Piedmont CC 0-12, 0-12
PAC 7 2A
Pine Lake Prep 10-2, 11-2
Mtn Isl Charter 10-2, 10-2
Comm Sch Davidson 9-3, 10-3
Union Academy 7-5, 8-5
Bradford Prep 4-8, 4-10
Langtree Charter 2-10, 2-11
Queen’s Grant 0-12, 1-13
College baseball
Two Carolinas teams won regionals last weekend to advance to this weekend’s Super Regionals. The full 16-team super regionals pairings and schedule follows:
N.C. State at No. 1 Arkansas
Game 1: Arkansas 21-2
Game 2: N.C. State 6-5 (Series tied at 1-1)
Game 3: Sunday, 6 p.m.
South Florida at No. 2 Texas
Game 1: Texas 4-3 (Texas leads series 1-0)
Game 2: Sunday, 9 p.m.
Game 3 (if necessary): Monday, 4 or 7 p.m.
LSU at No. 3 Tennessee
Game 1: Tennessee 4-2 (Tennessee leads series 1-0)
Game 2: Sunday, Noon or 3 p.m.
Game 3 (if necessary): Monday, 4 or 7 p.m.
No. 13 East Carolina at No. 4 Vanderbilt
Game 1: Vanderbilt 2-0
Game 2: Vanderbilt 4-1 (Vanderbilt wins series 2-0)
No. 12 Ole Miss at No. 5 Arizona
Game 1: Arizona 9-3 (Arizona leads series 1-0)
Game 2: Saturday, late
Game 3 (if necessary): Sunday, 9 p.m.
Dallas Baptist vs. Virginia (at Columbia, S.C.)
Game 1: Saturday, Dallas Baptist 6-5 (Dallas Baptist leads series 1-0)
Game 2: Sunday, Noon
Game 3 (if necessary): Monday, 1 p.m.
No. 10 Notre Dame at No. 7 Mississippi State
Game 1: Mississippi State 9-8 (Mississippi State leads series 1-0)
Game 2: Sunday, 6 p.m.
Game 3 (if necessary): Monday, 7 p.m.
No. 9 Stanford at No. 8 Texas Tech
Game 1: Stanford 15-3
Game 2: Stanford 9-0 (Stanford wins series 2-0)
Pro baseball
The Gastonia Honey Hunters’ four-game winning streak came to a halt on Saturday at Lexington swept them in a doubleheader in two one-run losses (2-1 and 7-6).
Gastonia (7-7) closes its three-game series at Lexington on Sunday.