Cole among area umpires to work state finals in Burlington
By Bob Sutton
Special to The Alamance News
There won’t be an area team in the high school baseball state championships, but there will be an on-field presence from Alamance County for some games this week at Burlington Athletic Stadium.
An umpiring crew that has been selected to work a series in the state finals was assigned to the Class 2-A finals. Those games in the best-of-3 series are ticketed for the Burlington venue.
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The group of Graham fire chief Tommy Cole, Graham’s Mike Ward, Whitsett’s Todd Smith, and High Point’s Jarell Johnson will work the best-of-3 series between West Region champion East Rutherford vs. East Region champion South Lenoir.
Those assignments were confirmed by Jerry Talley, regional supervisor of the Central Carolina Officials Association.
Game 1 is set for 5:00 p.m. Friday and Game 2 will be at 11:00 a.m. Saturday. If a third game is necessary, it comes at 5:00 p.m. Saturday.
Johnson will call the first game from behind the plate and Cole has the plate for Game 2, while Ward will be the plate umpire if a third game is contested.
The Class 4-A finals are also set for Burlington. Asheville Robertson meets Wilmington Laney in those games (8:00 p.m. Friday, 2:00 p.m. Saturday and, if necessary, 5:00 p.m. or 8:00 p.m. Saturday).
The other baseball finals will be held at Ting Stadium in Holly Springs. Those matchups are Greenville Rose vs. North Lincoln in Class 3-A and two-time defending champion Uwharrie Charter Academy and Perquimans in Class 1-A.
- The state finals for softball will be held at Duke and UNC Greensboro.
At Duke, the Class 1-A final puts Perquimans vs. Union County, while Greenville Conley and South Caldwell meet in Class 4-A.
At UNCG, it’s West Wilkes vs. North Lenoir in Class 2-A, with Rockingham County vs. Scotland in Class 3-A.
The Friday game times vary slightly, but the Saturday set-up is similar to the baseball finals.
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