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SportsWeek June 7, 2012 Penn one to watch on the diamond BY CRAIG T. GREENLEE SPECIAL TO THE CHRONICLE Mount Tabor's Cole Penn was overlooked in the voting for this year's Central Piedmont 4-A All-Conference team. The senior first baseman didn't put up jaw-dropping numbers. Yet, there's no question that his hitting and fielding were instrumental in helping the Spartans make a deep run in the *? state baseball playoffs this spring. "If a game was on the line. Cole was always the one we wanted at the plate," said Coach Mike Lovelace. "When pitchers made a mistake with him, he made them pay. Nobody will ever outwork Cole. He'll be successful at whatever he chooses to do because of his work ethic. No coach could ever ask for a better 1 -4~1 " iuic muuci. Penn fin ished his senior season with a .310 batting average to go with 14 RBIs, six doubles and three home runs, two of which came in the play offs. Tabor's state champi onship quest ended with a dis appointing 2-1 loss to East Forsyth in the quarterfinal round. In Tabor's opening-round playoff game against power house Charlotte Providence , Penn hit a homer to tie the game and the Spartans went nn to take a Submitted Photo Ml. Tabor's Cole Penn is making a name for himself. 5-4 win in extra innings. Providence was No. 1 in the state and ranked eighth nationally by USA Today. Against East Forsyth, Penn, 5-feet-9, 180 pounds, hit a towering drive over the leftfield fence for a home run to put his team on top. The Eagles, however, bounced back in the bottom of the ninth. The game was decided on a bases-loaded balk, which allowed the winning run to cross the plate in a 2 1 victory for East. "Every team we played this year did everything they could to hamper Cole's effectiveness as a hitter," Lovelace said. "On everyone's scouting report, the message was: 'Don't let Cole Penn beat us.' All year long, he was solid and he contin ued to get better." As a long-ball hitter who opposing pitchers didn't want to challenge. Penn saw a lot of breaking balls and off-speed pitches. By necessity, he learned to be more patient at the plate. In the process, he drew more walks because pitchers were careful when facing him. "It forced me to be a lot more disciplined," said Penn, who played two years at Reagan before transferring to Mount Tabor. "I had to learn how to wait and be patient until I could get a pitch that I could drive. There used to be a time when I would always swing at the first pitch. That's not something I do anymore." Penn, a left-hander who hits from the right side, is known for his bat, but he's equally gifted with his glove, at first base and in the outfield. He will most likely get the opportunity to play both positions at the college level. So far, the schools that have shown the most interest are Winston-Salem State, Brevard and Lenoir-Rhyne.Penn looks forward to making his mark at the next level. "It's important that I keep working every single day," he said. "If you stop working to get better, you'll find that there's always somebody else who is working to better themselves. I just want to be as good as I can possibly be, and maybe one day, I'll play in the Major Leagues." WFU TO BE Jammin' Team headed to Virgin Islands b-ball tourney for first time SPECIAL TO THE CHRONICLE Wake Forest will take on Big East foe and 2011 National Champion Connecticut in the ?opening round of the U.S. Virgin Islands Paradise Jam at University of the _ Viroin TclanHc nn FriHav Mnu 1 f\ on thp icIanH of Thomas T 11 gill 1U1UIIWU VII * 11UWJ I A 1V V ? 1 V VH M1V ???????*? V* wa ? aawaaaa-w ? j The Demon Deacons and Huskies will tipoff at 6:30 p.m., ET. J The winner will then face the winner of the Iona-Quinnipiac I matchup on Sunday, Nov. 18, at 9 p.m. The losers of the two first I round games will meet on Saturday, Nov. 17, at 6:30 p.m. J All third-round games will be played on Monday, Nov. 19, with I the championship game scheduled for 9 p.m. v First-round matchups on the opposite side of the bracket feature W Mercer vs. George Mason and UIC vs. New Mexico. ?I This will mark Wake Forest's first-ever appearance in the L Paradise Jam and the Deacons' first-ever regular season games K played in the Caribbean. The Deacons played two preseason exhi P bition games in Nassau, Bahamas, prior to the 2006-07 season. The last time Wake Forest played outside of the contiguous U.S. I during the regular season came during the 1999-2000 season when the Deacons participated in the Rainbow Classic in Honolulu, Hawaii. Wake Forest and Connecticut have met twice previously on the 0 hardwood, splitting the matchups. The Deacons handily won the firct mpptinr? 1A1.77 in tho rtnpnino rnnnrl r\f thp OilaVpr Pifv " ' ' V ?HOl llivvmig, 1V^- ( I I ill lliv vpvillllg 1VUI1U w? niv wunvi viij AT UNIVIRSITV OP THI VIRCIN ISLAM PS Tournament on Dec. 29, 1969, at the Spectrum in Philadelphia. In the most recent meeting, UConn defeated Wake Forest, 84-75, on Dec. 2, 1991, at the Hartford Civic (now XL) Center. Wake Forest has never faced Iona or Quinnipiac previously. The Deacons are 3-1 all-time vs. New Mexico and 1-0 vs. both George Mason and Mercer. Wake has never faced UIC, which is the alma mater of Deacon Head Coach Jeff Bzdelik. Baseballers playing in summer leagues CHRONICLE STAFF REPORT Members of Winston-Salem State's cham pionship-winning baseball team will have lit tle downtime this summer. Many of the Rams will spend the next three summer months playing in highly com petitive collegiate summer baseball leagues across the country. Among them are rising senior first base man and 2012 CIA A Player of the Year Aaron Jones of Kernersville. He will spend the sea cnn nlavino for the Wicrnnsin Raniris Rafters Jones ' * ?r of the Northwoods Summer Collegiate league. (NWL). The 16-team NWL is com prised of teams of the top college baseball players across the nation and North America. Teams span the entire Midwest, including Iowa, Wisconsin and Minnesota as well as Ontario, Canada. Joining Jones in the Northwoods League is aii-CIAA and 2012 Daktronics, Inc. Division II All-Atlantic Region second base man German Reyes. He will be spending his summer playing for the Lakeshore Chinooks in Milwaukee. Wise. Rising senior Paco Martin will be playing with the Martinsville Mustangs of the Coastal Plains League (CPL). Rising junior Joseph Herbert will also play in the CPL. He will pitch for the Asheboro Copperheads. Asheboro finished in second place in the West Division in 2011 with a 30-25 overall record. Herbert was 5-1 with a 4.06 ERA and 29 strikeouts in 57.2 innings for the Ram's squad this past season. Rising seniors Dominique Fitzgerald and Brandon Harrison will be playing this sum mer for the Virginia Marlins and Kernersville Bulldogs, respectively. Both clubs are mem bers of the Carolina-Virginia Collegiate Summer League. WSSU Photo by Garrett Ganni German Reyes joins his team in battling St. Aug last season. Hampton, NSU earn top MEAC honors SPECIAL TO THE CHRONICLE The Hampton University department of athletics won its 11th straight Mary McLeod-Bethune Women's All-Sports Award, the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) announced recently. The school was presented a $20XXX) check during a reception in Orlando, Fla. The Lady Pirates col lected conference titles in cross country, inrl/Vtr tr u L A'- lu?IH rOltHfWr tfOolr jPr i ? ivjv/v'i u uvn ub iiviu , uuiuwi vi uv r\ ?. nviu and women's basketball, continuing a pat tern of dominance in the MEAC in those sports. The Lady Pirates have won back-to back cross country titles, nine indoor track titles in 10 years, six outdoor track titles in seven years and three straight women's basketball tournament titles. The Lady Pirates also earned the MEAC's automatic NCAA Tournament bid in women's basketball for the third straight year, on top of back-to-back MEAC regu lar-season titles. In all, Hampton tallied 99.5 points in the women's standings. Florida A&M Photo by Kevin Hartley The Lady Pirates celebrate their MEAC Basketball Tourney win in March. a ? ? . .. .L _ t IT"" A ? _ t AAr /aI ?_ came in second with 88.5 points, while Maryland Eastern Shore was third with 86 points. Hampton has won 14 overall All-Sports ?? _ ? i r I . . i . . i * ? . ? ? tropmes since joining me rvin./\c, in iyyo (mree men s awaras inciuaing oacK-to-oacK victories in J and 2004, and 11 straight women's awards, dating back to 2002). Norfolk State won the Talmadge Layman Hill Men's All-Sports Award, its eighth straight. For the third straight year, the University of Maryland Eastern Shore (U.MES) won the MEAC's Highest Graduation Success Rate Award. JCSU's Ming wins national title SPECIAL TU THE CHRONICLE A total of 10 members from the Johnson C. Smith University men's and women's outdoor track & field teams competed in the 2012 NCAA Division II Championships hosted by Colorado State-Pueblo at the DeRose Thunderbowl. The four members of the men's team earned 21 points to place 14th out of S3 universities; while the six women placed 13th out of 54 universities scored. On the men's side, junior Akino Ming (St. Thomas, Jamaica) surpassed all participants in the 400m event to win the national title in 46.14 sec onds, despite extreme heat conditions. Ming won his preliminary heat in 46.01. Fellow junior Winston Brown (47.30) placed 6th in the same event to earn his first individual Ail-American award. Brown achieved a personal best (46.67) in the 400m pre lims. The quartet of Brown, Ming, junior Jamille Callum (Orleans, Mass.), and sophomore Rolando Berch (St. Andrew, Jamaica) had two season bests in the 4x400m relay. The team won their preliminary heat in 3:08.71 (SB) and returned to place a close 2nd in 3:07.32. The men's team returns to JCSU with one Photo courtesy of A. Ming A kino Ming prepares to compete in Pueblo, Colo. new national cnampion ana a total ot tive All-American awaras. Two members of the team (Ming and Brown) will now turn their attention to com peting at the Olympic trials in an effort to make the Olympic team for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. ?
Winston-Salem Chronicle (Winston-Salem, N.C.)
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June 7, 2012, edition 1
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