ACPB attended the finals of the NCISAA State Championships at Charlotte Country Day in a repeat of last seasons championship match up between Charlotte Christian and defending champion Wesleyan Christian.

Charlotte Country Day hosted the finals at the recently refurbished Ed Walton Field at the CCDS campus. Coach Walton was honored this year when the field he cared for for over 30 years was named in his honor. With many new improvements including VIP seating overlooking the 12 foot left field fence the field continues to be one of the best in the state of North Carolina.

Wesleyan knocked off the host team in semi final action on the arm of 2009 LOGAN SELF (Campbell). Self pitched in the 86-88 range and held the Bucs to 3 hits in the 4-0 victory. The Bucs started 2011 WILLIAM FRAZIER. The young lefty showed why he was later voted NCISAA All State when he gave up 3 hits himself yet walked 6 and his defense gave up a couple of errors to take the loss. He settled down after giving up 4 in the first two innings and got 13 outs in a row. Frazier will be a pitcher to keep an eye on as he has solid command of three pitches and is throwing 78-79 from the left side.

Christian started out their semi final game slowly and found themselves behind Providence Day 5-1 after 3 innings. Senior ace LUKE BARD (Georgia Tech) came into the game and stopped the bleeding cold. The Kinghts then became a little more selective at the plate and before the dust had settled had taken a 10-6 victory to the finals. The Knight offense was led by 2010 TY LINTON who hit a bomb to RCF high onto the light pole; 2010 JAKE WATSON who singled and drove in the go ahead run and 2009 SCOTT GLOVER (High Point) who put an exclamation point on the victory with a HR and two RBIs. 2011 SAM ARNIE CF and 2012 ANDREW POPE SS/P are a couple of young Providence Day players to keep an eye on.

The NCISAA finals are a best of three that take place immediatly following the semi finals games. In game 1 the knights jumped on the Wesleyan starter CLINTON INGRAM early and often as their bats remained hot from the earlier semi final. TY LINTON hit another deep blast to LCF and added 2 doubles in driving in 5 runs for the game. 2010 TREY LANEY (Western Carolina) added a HR of his own on a 2 for 2 night and JAKE WATSON went 2 for 4 with 3 runs scored as the Knights ended the game early with a 14-0 win. Wesleyan All American WILL MYERS (USC) did not see a pitch to hit in the CCDS semi final as he was walked three times. In the Christian game he got to swing the bat and just missed on a couple of deep fly outs. 2012 CASEY CORN is a middle infielder to keep an eye on in the future. The youngster showed good actions in the field at second base and collected a hit in each of the first two games.

With a win under their belts Christian showed up Saturday morning expecting to take back the championship crown. They broke out to a 5-0 lead early off the hot bat of Linton who had a double and triple in this game. After a rain delay Wesleyan came storming back to tie the game. Myers finally got a pitch near the plate and it left the yard in deep RCF. Christian brought their ace Bard back in and once again he put a stop to the momentum. Luke collected two relief wins for the series to take his season record to 10-0. The Wesleyan pitcher TYLER HICKERNELL lost a little control late and ended up mixing some walks and hit batters into a couple of hits that led to a Christian 8-5 victory.

LUKE BARD: TY LINTON and WILL MYERS were all voted to the NCISAA All State Team in an announcement following the game.

Ty Linton; Jake Watson and Trey Laney can all be seen with the South Charlotte Panthers this summer. William Frazier will play with the CBC Diamnond Rats; Sam Arnie and Andrew Pope will be on the fields with the On Deck O's.