Rocky Mount High School | Archive | April, 2018

It took just one game for the Rocky Mount High baseball team to go from last to first.

The Gryphons still trail Wilson Fike by two games in the 3-A Big East Conference standings, but the Gryphons put together one of their better offensive outputs in team history on Thursday against crosstown rival Northern Nash.

RMH hit six home runs against the host Knights in a 15-0 win. The Gryphons hadn’t hit a single home run all season before Thursday’s outburst, and it now leads the conference in homers hit with six.

“Before the game today we had a really good round of batting practice,” said Austin Luttrell, who went 4-for-4 with a home run. “We felt like we were going to hit good tonight. The energy on the way here was really good, really focused, and I think that helped set the tone.”

Northern Nash (2-15, 1-5) starter Connor Davenport worked around a Luttrell double in the first inning to escape with no harm done. Gryphons junior Victor Ward changed that in the top of the second by putting the first pitch he saw over the fence in right-center field fence, setting the stage for a wild night.

Ward mashed three home runs, all coming in his first three at-bats. His second home run, this time a two-run blast in the third, came with two outs. Northern Nash couldn’t find a way to escape the inning, however, as the Gryphons (8-8, 4-2) would string together three consecutive singles that Garrett Craig cleaned up with a grand slam from the No. 9 spot in the order.

The fourth inning started much like the third, with Luttrell reaching on a double, only to jog home when Ward hit his third home run of the game into the pine trees stationed in the backyard of a home beyond the right-field fence.

“This is my first three homers,” Ward said. “I wasn’t thinking I was going to hit one. I’m just going up there trying to make contact with the ball. That first one I had no idea was going to go out. The last two, though, I knew were out”

Luttrell capped his banner night with a solo home run to lead off the fifth. The next two batters reached, setting up Ward with runners on for a chance at his fourth homer, but the Knights were able to miss his bat with some relief pitching.

Hunter Bailey entered to face Ward, and went right after him. Bailey struck out Ward on four pitches.

“Because he’s already hit three homers, I didn’t want him to hit another one off me,” Bailey said. “I don’t know how he hit them, but I give him congrats on that. I just had to pitch to him. My plan was to keep it outside and low. I’ve known him for a little bit, and he struggles on pitches outside and low, and that’s what he swung at on that last pitch.”

Bailey almost snuck out of the inning without further damage, but an error kept the inning alive long enough for Alandis Trevethan to smack a two-run home run to cap the scoring. Trevethan came off the bench to hit the most impressive homer of the bunch, as he hit the light structure in right-center.

RMH coach Carter Varnell couldn’t think of a time when the Gryphons hit six homers in a game. Varnell does remember a four-homer affair back when Brian Goodwin, now an outfielder for the Washington Nationals, played on the team. But nothing like Thursday’s power surge.

The Gryphons beats Northern Nash on Tuesday behind a strong outing from starter Evan Hart. On Thursday, Kyle Rich’s strong start was overshadowed. Rich lasted 3 ⅓ innings, and struck out five while allowing two hits.

RMH pulled into a tie for second in the conference standings with the win. Next up, RMH hosts Wilson Hunt on Tuesday, while Northern Nash travels to Southern Nash.

Over the course of a season, a postseason, a summer and a four-year high school career, some games and individual performances that don’t pop on paper can get pushed to the back of the mind.

So on Tuesday, a few minutes after a double play spun by shortstop Lane Butler ended a Big East contest — a 6-1 home victory for Rocky Mount over Wilson Hunt that put RMHS in sole possession of second place in conference — first-year coach Carter Varnell seemed to make mental note of another sharp and poignant performance from freshman pitcher Evan Hart, both navigating their ways through a first season with a varsity team.

“It’s truly amazing to see a freshman pitcher come out and give you the same quality performance. I would say he struggled at times — he was missing some spots. He had some deeper counts. Usually he works ahead a lot. He just battled and kept battling,” Varnell said. “We always preach, throw strikes, let your defense work. He did that, but there were some pressure pitches in there.”

Hart’s final line: Seven innings pitched, five hits allowed, one earned run, six strikeouts, two evaded bases-loaded jams and eight Warrior runners left on base. It was his fifth win of the season, and it dipped an already sub-two ERA even lower.

He entered the seventh inning with a pitch count in the 70s, inducing a pop-up to start. But he hit the next batter and the next reached on an error, prompting a mound visit from Varnell.

“He told me just to act like I was throwing with my catcher,” Hart said. “My legs were getting tired.”

But a few pitches later came the double play fielded by Butler, who stepped on second and fired to first to end the game.

“I wanted to hug him,” Hart said, laughing. “I don’t know what would have happened afterwards. Pretty sure that was the best play of the night.”

The Gryphons (9-8, 5-2) got ahead on Hunt (11-7, 4-3) with two runs in the second and three in the third. After hitting an entirely unusual six home runs against Northern Nash last week, they did it this time with manufactured runs, bunts and sac flys, smacking seven hits, all singles.

And to begin the game, Varnell got a spark from an unexpected source: The No. 8 and No. 9 hitters, and, to extend the improbability, the No. 8 hitter, freshman and designated hitter Jackson Tedford, had played in the junior varsity game right before, going 2-for-4.

He and Garrett Craig reached base their first four times up, with Tedford getting a two-out, two-strike hit that started a second inning rally. He walked in the third inning to extend the frame, then Craig, with the bases loaded, singled up in the middle for an RBI.

On that hit, Hunt’s center fielder allowed the ball to go through his legs, and two other Gryphons base runners scored, as well.

“I didn’t know I was DHing until game time, but I knew I was coming up today,” said Tedford, who had seen some time earlier in the season with varsity. “I wasn’t expecting to play here, it’s a dream that I get to come up and do this.”

For Varnell, who had a sophomore at third base and a freshman pitching to a freshman catcher, it was usual for the course in an up-and-down season with an exceptionally young roster.

“He’s still green, a freshman, he’s young,” Varnell said. “But he’s a guy that has quality at-bats in any situation. The moment doesn’t get to him.”

If the Northern Nash baseball team hoped to have a chance against host Rocky Mount High during Tuesday’s 3-A Big East Conference game, it wouldn’t come with Evan Hart on the mound.

The problem for the Knights was that they couldn’t string enough hits together to knock Hart out of the game, as the right-handed pitcher scorched his way through the Knights lineup.

The only thing that could slow Hart was his pitch count, a number that caught up to him in the sixth. The Gryphons starter reached the 105 pitch limit with two outs in the sixth, denying the freshman a complete game. For the Knights, it was too late to get anything going.

RMH (7-8, 3-2) rode a terrific outing from Hart, and pushed across some early runs that held up in a 4-0 victory over their cross-town rivals in the first of a two-game series that concludes on Thursday.

“I just tried to hit my spots throughout the game,” Hart said. “Sometimes I don’t really mean to throw up high in the zone, but hitters get anxious and swing at it.

Hart was dominant throughout, piling up 13 strikeouts while issuing just one walk. Hart allowed four hits, all of which came in the third and fourth innings. He pitched to all but one batter, as Gates Harrell came on in relief to record the final out via strikeout after Hart had to be pulled after reaching 105 pitches.

“I **** that we had to pull him there,” RMH coach Carter Varnell said. “He was one batter away. We told him to throw fastballs and pitch to contact there in that last inning to try and get through. But it was, in my mind, a complete-game shutout.”

The freshman opened the game by working a pair of 1-2-3 innings. In the third, Hart worked around two singles by striking out three batters. Again, the Knights (2-14, 1-4) threatened to score in the fourth with back-to-back singles with two out, before Hart ended the threat with a looking strikeout.

“If we can get any sort of offense going with pitching like that,” RMH coach Carter Varnell said, “then we’ll be just fine.”

Silas Gonzalez, a Northern Nash senior committed to play baseball at Air Force, almost took Hart deep to open the sixth, but the ball stayed in the air and was caught at the warning track in center field.

“He hit the **** of that,” Hart said on Gonzalez’s long flyout. “He almost got me, luckily my defense helped me out. Even with a hitter like that at the plate, I try to make my pitches and let my defense help me out.”

Jamar Ellis and Austin Luttrell paced the Gryphons at the top of the order with five combined hits, including three from Luttrell. Harrell, from the ninth spot, helped turn over the order with timely hitting. Harrell finished with a single and a sacrifice fly to collect a pair of RBI.

“We had a good start offensively, and we seemed to be on a good pace,” Varnell said. “My goal for the game was to score a run in every inning, be consistent. We got a lead, but got too relaxed. We had opportunities, but couldn’t get that timely base hit.”

Knights starter Charlie Rooks allowed four runs over four innings in a losing effort.

A few inches separated a four-run win and a tight rest of the top of the seventh.

Luckily for Rocky Mount, playing at home on Friday, it was the first option. Jamar Ellis, pitching with two outs to a Franklinton batter with the bases loaded in an 8-4 game, bore down and delivered a fastball, which was fended off for a lazy, tailing blooper that initially seemed destined to land in the right field grass.

But Gryphons first basemen Connor Powell tracked the flare and made a successful lunging catch, ending the game at 8-4 on a play that could just have easily resulted in a bases-clearing bloop.

“I was thinking the ball was going to get down,” Rocky Mount coach Carter Varnell said. “I was looking for where my right fielder was. Lucky enough, Connor got a good jump and made a really nice play—a heck of a play. I patted him on the back.”

The win for the Gryphons (5-4, 2-0) ended a two and a half hour affair where they managed only three hits but benefited from a wild Rams pitching staff. Rocky Mount was actually outhit by Franklinton (3-2, 0-2), 7-3.

“We’ve got to do better offensively moving forward if we want to beat some good teams in conference. I dare say if we only have three against some of the teams we play in conference, it’s going to be tough,” Varnell said.

Indeed, the product left something to be desired but a Big East win it was, closing out the series with first-year conference opponent Franklinton, which the Gryphons had beaten earlier in the week, 10-0.

Lefty Joernest Petway started for Rocky Mount, making quick work of the Rams in the first inning with two strikeouts and a fly out. But he would last only two more innings, letting up two runs on four hits, two walks and a hit batsman in the second and third.

Gates Harrell entered in the fourth inning and closed the door on the Rams while Rocky Mount padded its lead; he went the next three innings, let up zero runs and amassed seven strikeouts with only one hit.

“He’s in that middle relief, long relief role,” Varnell said. “He did what we needed him to do.”

Caleb Whitaker started the seventh, but allowed three walks and two hits before Ellis stepped in to get the final out on Powell’s game-ending catch.

On offense, the three hits came from Austin Luttrell, Kyle Rich and Powell. As a team, the Gryphons reached base by walk or hit batsmen 11 times in only six innings. They had the bases loaded in three different innings, but never found the timely at-bat they needed to really differentiate themselves.

“That was the teaching moment,” Varnell said. “We’ve got to do a better job offensively of getting that timely hit.”

Wrestling has opened up a large window of opportunity for Rocky Mount High’s Rahshun Lawrence.

It has taken him up and down the East coast to national tournaments and even to North Dakota, a state not many people from the Twin Counties envision visiting.

So after four years on the high school level of winning conference championships, regional titles and competing against the best wrestlers in the state, Lawrence is reflective and comfortable when talking about his career, which ends with the Gryphon being named the Telegram’s 2017-18 All-Area Wrestler of the Year.

It’s a sport that actually came to Lawrence by chance. He was in middle school and playing soccer when the wrestling coach recruited him because he needed someone to fill an open weight class.

His appreciation for the sport has grown every year, through the winning and losing. This past winter he won the Big East Conference championship in the 120 pound weight class. He placed third in the East region and fought his way to a fourth-place finish at the NCHSAA 3-A state championships in Greensboro.

“At one point, I was like that (worried about state championships),” Lawrence said. “I was the regional champion last year, and went to states with a high seed and got upset. Sometimes you just have to sit back and say someone was better than you. There’s no need to dwell on it. You just have to keep working hard.”

Lawrence certainly has challenged himself at different levels and styles of the sport. He has done Greco-Roman wrestling with his club team, and with the Gryphons, he has competed at the 106-, 113- and 120-pound divisions at part of the past four seasons.

He said he felt like he was at his best this season at 120 pounds after figuring out which class his body best operated.

The quick pin is always appreciated, but Lawrence said he also enjoyed matches that went a few rounds that tested both athletes.

“When you are exhausted and you pin them, it feels great,” Lawrence said. “If you don’t have heart, you won’t be a good wrestler. If one thing doesn’t go your way, it can change the whole match. One little lapse in an undefeated season, and you can be on your back. You never know.”

Lawrence can laugh at himself, too, calling himself the athlete on the Gryphons with perhaps the worst diet.

He remembers holidays that tested his will, knowing he couldn’t — or maybe he could — endulge in a full plate of homecooked food because there was an upcoming tournament.

The Pepsi he drinks prior to matches probably doesn’t help, either.

“I was always the person who was overweight,” Lawrence said.

There is a chance his career continues, either at Ferrum College or UNC-Pembroke. If decides to attend East Carolina, he’ll enjoy the club wrestling team. He plans to major in criminal justice and is looking forward to a career in law enforcement.

Hours in the sauna, working out at the YMCA and trying make weight for the next match were all worth it, Lawrence said.

“Going to practice was fun because you learned something new every day,” Lawrence said. “In the end it all paid off.”

Damian Moore hadn’t done this much jumping since basketball season.

Normally, the Rocky Mount High senior’s name would be penciled in next to mid-distance events like the 800 meters at track meets. Moore is also a mainstay on the 4×400 and 4×800 relays. His long frame made it an easy decision to plug him into longer races, allowing his legs to eat up track.

But on Monday, during a triangular meet at Rocky Mount High with Nash Central and Kinston, Moore took on a new challenge. He ran the 110-hurdles, an event coach Sonya Pickett figured the senior would excel.

“He has been a distance runner and mid-distance runner for us, he did the distance relays and I thought I’d give him a new challenge,” Pickett said. “It was his first time doing the 110s. He started with the 300 hurdles this year, and he’s athletic and in a leadership role on this team so I knew he could handle it.”

Moore had actually been jumping too high while running the 300 hurdles, which are set at a lower height than in the 110 race. And his endurance, built up by running distance events, and natural jumping ability made him a perfect fit for the exhausting race.

Turns out those hunches were right. Moore, competing in his first 110 hurdles event of his career, finished third in 17 seconds flat. His time was just 1.26 seconds off the qualifying mark for the 3-A regional meet.

That’s encouraging for Moore, who said his legs knocked the top of the bar several times during the race.

“I didn’t even practice it before,” Moore said. “Before the meet, Coach has a sheet that lists what everyone is running that day. I saw my name up there by the 110 and just went out and ran it. I know I need to work more on technique. But there’s time to be made up.”

Moore also has less than a second to make up to qualify for regionals in the 300. He just has to dial in his jump height, and get a better feel for the pace of the race. He has quickly become someone Pickett can lean on as she toys with event lineups ahead of championship meets.

“I’ve noticed already that some of the hurdlers don’t have the endurance,” Moore said. “They die out at the end. I think that I have a little bit of an advantage there.”

As for the distance runners, Keyonte Williams won the 1,600 and placed second in the mile. The deep RMH roster allows for Pickett to do some maneuvering, and with capable runners holding down races, athletes like Moore have a chance to shine elsewhere.

That has the Gryphons thinking big again this season.

“Winning a conference championship is our goal,” Pickett said. “A lot of guys can be put in different races. I think we can have six kids be at the top in our conference. I have a lot of confidence in this team.

The Gryphons, who won the Big East Conference last season, are aiming for another shot this year despite some key losses to graduation, including Sherrod Greene, a state champion and now a South Carolina football player.

But new additions to the team have RMH humming along. Nigel Cobb, a senior, is running his first track season and has already impressed. Cobb has earned a spot on the 4×400 relay that posted a regional-qualifying time on Monday.

“In his first year, Nigel Cobb really has been an awesome athlete,” Pickett said. “I wish I would’ve had him the past three years. He came in during indoor, never ran before, and helped qualify a relay.

“He runs the 100 and 200 for us now, and I moved him to second leg of the 4×4. He can get a lead for us early, then we can give the other guys time to bring it home.,He’s probably my top sprinter.”

Cobb finished second and third in the 100 and 200, respectively.

There is a grainy cell phone video from December, 2015 that Linwood Battle still likes to talk about, still likes to show anyone wanting to look.

It’s of his son, Shyheim, on the left with a teammate after the final game of his freshman season with the Rocky Mount Gryhpons.

Shyheim, wearing a blue No. 7 jersey with yellow block letters, says to the camera: “D-I. I want my letters and I want my offers.”

Fast forward to March, 2018, and he’s got those letters. Tons of them. Two size 13 shoe boxes worth of them. So many that the people at the post office want to meet the kid behind the steady flow.

“These will be good memories someday,” says the youngest Battle, 16, sifting through the orange Nike box and black Jordan box for some of the bigger schools.

There’s a shiny, plastic orange one from the Clemson Tigers. It’s a Thursday. He’s going down for an official visit with his parents, his friend and his girlfriend the next day. The Tigers offered him a football scholarship on Feb. 21.

Ohio State came nine days after that. The SEC came knocking when Tennessee added to the total. He’s got his letters — 15 offers, officially, with more to come for the junior cornerback.

He’s got those. So now what does he want?

To make the NFL, hopefully. If he gets there, maybe play for the Pittsburgh Steelers, even though it’s cold in Pittsburgh. He wants to meet Deion Sanders and his sons. He wants to start a business. He wants to leave Rocky Mount.

“I mean, Rocky Mount — there’s not too much to do here,” he said. “I mean, I love it here. It’s my home. I’ll always come back and visit, but I want to see the world.”

***

In this period of a few months where Shyheim has gone from local recruit to power-five prospect, there’s been no bigger reminder for him that his life has changed than the early morning texts, usually when he’s in first period of his school day.

All types of coaches check in from all types of schools. When he visited Duke last weekend, on Monday morning at 8:20 a.m. the Blue Devils’ coaching staff came buzzing. On Twitter, local kids flood his direct message inbox.

He says he loves the process, the attention and managing his time to fit in everything on the football side while still giving his school work the time it needs.

For an idea of what all this was going to be like, he consulted local athletes ahead of him who have experienced a similar courtship — Rocky Mount High’s Sherrod Greene, who is wrapping up his freshman year at South Carolina; Tarboro’s Tyquan Lewis, who enters the NFL Draft this spring after four years at Ohio State; and Greenville’s Cornell Powell, a junior at Clemson. He hopes to get in contact with Todd Gurley II.

When first period ends, he tries to answer every person back, though some ask for a phone call — all a part of “blowing up,” as people on Twitter like to tell him.

Linwood, who graduated from SouthWest Edgecombe in 1987, never played football. His school’s coach asked him to join the team as a cornerback during his senior season, which would have matched him in practice alongside Yancey Thigpen, the future pro-bowler who caught 30 touchdowns in the NFL. But he never tried out.

“I was just too shy,” he said. “I was so shy it was unreal.”

About his son, he isn’t shy anymore.

“I do get protective of him. Like I tell him, take everything in stride,” Linwood said. “Even just within the city here. Everybody wants to touch his shoulder or just say hey to him. Take it in stride — you always say thanks and you’re welcome. He’s going to do that anyways because that’s how I raised him.

“I think he’s doing a great job,” he continued. “I tell him all the time, when these coaches text you, you don’t always have to respond back. All these schools and there’s only one Shyheim. Put the phone down sometimes. If you don’t hit them back, they’re still going to text you.”

***

There is, in fact, a particular moment that Linwood can pinpoint, that he knew his son was going to be a special athlete.

The scene: Shyheim’s undefeated youth football team in fifth grade was playing Nash County, also undefeated, in the championship game. Neither team scored in regulation so the game went to overtime, where both teams took a shot at scoring from the 20-yard line, but again came up short.

The third time, on the first play, Shyheim caught a sweep and made a dash for the end zone, outrunning the defense for a game-winning touchdown. On the sideline was Linwood, wearing a customized shirt with his son’s face on it that read M-V-P.

Shyheim played running back as a middle schooler and was the quarterback on the junior varsity team his freshman season. The idea to switch didn’t come until between his second high school season.

“Coach (Jason Battle), after my freshman season, told me in order for me to play on the next level I had to play at corner. He talked to me one-on-one and I said, ‘Alright coach. I’ll go for it,’” Shyheim said. “I just started by trying to get comfortable at corner. I ended up learning a little bit. My first year at the position, I did better than average for a first year corner.”

That was his sophomore season, where the Gryphons reached, but lost, the state title game, with Shyheim sealing one of the playoff games along the way with an interception. By the end of the school year, he had his first offer from Duke. N.C. State and East Carolina followed by the end of the 2017 season. The other 12 have come since.

At 6-foot-2 with long arms, the position was pitched to him by Jason Battle as the perfect spot for his size and capabilities, the football world these days less enamoured with the 5-foot-10, 5-foot-11 cornerbacks.

“A perfect storm for him,” Linwood said.

***

Shyheim has a friend a year older than him, another football player, who, by his estimation, is pound-for-pound just as good as him.

The difference between the two comes off of the field.

“He wanted to hang outside of school. Wrong crowds,” he said. “He wanted me to hang with him. I couldn’t do it, I had my mindset.

“I let him do him and he let me do me, and the difference is that I actually got an opportunity. He didn’t want to work. He fell short.”

To not be like any of the other players who fell short — he and his father, with the help of his coach, have made that their goal.

His Instagram and Twitter name is ShyOutta252, and he says it’s no offense to the city and area both his parents grew up in, it’s just an itch to see what else there is. Miami, or California, are two of his destinations.

Of the 15 offers to come play for a respective school, Ohio State, Clemson — one of his dream schools — and Tennessee packed a wow-factor. He’s waiting on Auburn, because Linwood loves Auburn, or maybe Louisiana State University, a school known for its defensive backs on the next level.

He’ll take the summer to train and work and ask for advice, play out his senior season and commit either during or after the season, he says.

The plan is to graduate from high school a semester early in December, to get a head start on a college career and a leg up on playing time.

Collectively, they’ve thought of everything. And they’ve been thinking, ever since Linwood walked into the coaches office in 2015 and announced that his son was the real deal. The boxes of letters have just been confirmation.

“Before the offers, everybody was still cool with me. They loved me, the offers start to come around and they still talk to me. Everybody wants to be your friend — ‘Can I go with you this place?’ But that’s OK. I’m a people’s person. I’m cool with everybody,” Shyheim said. “I’ve got other people in my ear, too, saying what’s real and what’s fake. Everything out there I’m taking in — is it really true or are they just trying to be with me? I just try to figure out what’s real and what’s not.”