HobbsDailyReport.com
NEWTON – It won’t be a part of this week’s South Fork 2A high school baseball tournament, but there’s one more game on tap for Maiden and Newton-Conover.
The teams will play on Tuesday at 5 p.m. at Newton-Conover with free admission (donations will be accepted at the gate to go to charity).
MAIDEN (5-15)
at
NEWTON-CONOVER (1-19)
TUESDAY, 5 p,m. (free admission)
“Myself and Coach (Corey) Nunley felt a little cheated with the conference decision to remove our two teams from the conference tournament, so we felt like we at least owed this last game to our seniors and our teams,” Maiden head coach David Williams told The Newton Observer News Enterprise. “It should be a lot of fun, and we hope to have some community support as well.”
The Blue Devils (5-15, 4-10) and Red Devils (1-19, 1-13) will meet for the third time this season. Maiden won 8-7 on March 23 at Maiden and won 6-0 on April 25 at Newton-Conover.
Maiden has won its last two games, and the Red Devils have dropped three straight games.
The change in the format for the conference tournament came in order for the league to meet North Carolina High School Athletic Association (NCHSAA) rules about playing no more than four games in a week and the fourth game having to be played on a Saturday.
The tournament field will be six teams and first-round and semifinal games will be played on Tuesday at North Lincoln and Bandys.
There will be a 4 p.m. game at each of those sites on Tuesday, and North Lincoln and Bandys will then play the afternoon winners at their fields at 7 p.m. in a semifinal.
The championship game is scheduled Thursday at 7 p.m. at the Legion Fairgrounds.
The only set seeds for the tournament are North Lincoln as No. 1, Bandys as No. 2 and Lincolnton as No. 3.
Lincolnton’s first-round game, against the No. 6 seed, will be Tuesday at 4 p.m. at Bandys.
Lake Norman Charter and Bandys play Monday night at 7 p.m. at Bandys, a game that factors into who gets the No. 4 through No. 6 seeds.
In an email, Butch Parker, executive secretary of the South Fork 2A, said the tournament pairings won’t be official until Tuesday about 9 a.m.
The South Fork 2A also made the same change for its softball tournament.