Saturday afternoon was a Five Star 🌟 Day for Carroll County Baseball. First, the Junior Varsity team defeated James River 8-4 to clinch the Three Rivers District crown 👑. Next up was a touching Senior Day Celebration for the six Cavaliers that are winding up their time at Bill Worrell Field.

The next segment was recognition for Britt Berrier as the four year Varsity player recently became the third Cavalier to collect 100 career base hits.

The next stop ✋ on the day long Cavalier Baseball ⚾️ Love fest was the Varsity team defeating the Knights by a final score of 12-1. After the game, Mrs Burcham and Steve Combs combined their efforts to create a reunion of former Cavaliers that had been coached by the long time partnership of Casey and Combs.

All of this happened one day after three of the six Seniors gathered in the School Auditorium to announce their College signings

Life is sailing along at a Premium level for the entire Baseball program. After a 30 hour whirlwind of accomplishments, Burcham still found time to actually critique the actual ball game.

” I thought we looked like a team who hadn’t been on the field for a week in the first couple of innings,” said Burcham.  “We did a phenomenal job making adjustments later in the game from an offensive standpoint.”

Carroll County fell short at Pulaski County High School back in the second game of the season and it had to have left a bad taste in their mouth because they haven’t dropped a game since.

Senior Cody Reece started on the mound for Carroll County and sparkled in his four innings of work. The right hander fanned 9 Knights over his four innings while allowing just one earned run. Peyton Spencer came in behind Reece to close out the shortened game due to the mercy rule.

James River actually led 1-0 heading into the bottom of the third inning. Burcham mentioned the slow 🐌 start but once the train left the station it turned into the Cavalier Express. Three straight frames were CCHS hung a Crooked number up on the Knights turned 1-0 into 12-1 in an absolute blink of an eye.

Reece and fellow Senior, Gage Nicholson deposited balls over the fence. It was quite a day for the Nicholson Family after little Brother(Bryce) did the same in the Junior Varsity victory. Big Brother finished up 3 of 4 with three runs scored and three runs driven in.

All season long the Cavaliers have combined timely hitting with tough as nails 💅 pitching and their line up is both deep and talented. Any future opponents are not be able to game plan around any one player in hopes of slowing down the attack.

Back to the Americana aspect of the old Chevrolet commercial. Baseball, Hot Dogs 🌭 and Apple Pie 🥧. Mama Burcham was even serving Apple Pie today in the family 👪 run Concession Stand.

Life is Grand right now on the Northside of the Boulevard !

” Our seniors paced us tonight,” added Burcham. “Proud of all the guys.”

Carroll County will travel to Radford on Tuesday night to close out the regular season and then advance to the Regional Tournament the following week as either a #1 or #2 seed.

The Junior Varsity will host Radford on Tuesday evening to wrap up their initial season under Adam Nester.

Congratulations 👏👏👏 to Rookie Coach Adam Nester as the Nester Nine clinched the Three Rivers District Championship Saturday afternoon with its 8-4 victory over the Knights of James River High School.

Carroll County exploded for all eight runs 🏃‍♂️ in the bottom of the third inning when 13 Cavaliers made their way to the plate. Nine base knocks led to the eight runs with the big stick belonging to Bryce Nicholson.

It would be fun to fact check how many times in the history of baseball ⚾️ that a player had a single inning in which they reached base on a dropped third strike, came around the score the first run and roughly 10 minutes later capped the uprising with a 3-run bomb 💣.

Nicholson scored two runs and picked up three RBIS in the half inning. Peyton Goad did okay for himself as well by going 2 for 2 with a run scored and a stolen base. Reid Horton duplicated those same numbers in the third.

Horton was absolutely fantastic on the mound, going 4 & 2/3 with only two base hits allowed. There were eight strikeouts recorded against just two walks. Colton Quesenberry earned the save by pitching the final two plus innings.

James River made things interesting in the top of the seventh inning with a three run rally after two outs were recorded. Quesenberry struck out Lucas Lawyer with the tying run to seal up the Championship for the Cavaliers.

The team still has a regular season game scheduled at Bill Worrell Field on Tuesday evening against Radford. Carroll County High School will be looking to close out a one loss season and it has been announced that the Three Rivers District will not be holding a #1 versus #2 post season tournament.

Ryan Phillips and Jason Hart both assisted Nester this season as the trio took the baton from Combs after he stepped up to become the Assistant Coach on Varsity.

James River …… 000 001 3 – 4

Carroll County…008 000 X – 8

Winning Pitcher – Reid Horton

  16 wins out of 17 games with eight shutouts recorded along the way. Not bad work for a Rookie Head Coach but Nester won’t wait around for Combs and Burcham to stroke his Ego. Listen closely and you can hear Combs saying ” I loosened the jar for you.”

Tuesday afternoon at Bill Worrell Field will be one final opportunity to catch this overly impressive group and their Coaches in action 🎬.

Fun note 📝 during the Junior Varsity game, we had some fun by sharing a Fun Fact about each of the six Varsity Seniors.

Here’s the list that we came up with :

Cody Reece was actually leading the eventual State Champs 🏆 Spotswood, 9-8 by himself  in the State Quarterfinals.

Jacky Turman is the Senior Class President.

Ben Phillips once held a State Championship in a category of Martial Arts down in North Carolina.

Gage Nicholson is a HUGE fan of all things Mayo ! This one drew the largest applause.

Britt Berrier qualified to Swim 🏊‍♂️ in the State Meet for the Cavaliers after just one year of ever jumping into the pool!

Slade Quesenberry is so dedicated to the Cavaliers Baseball ⚾️ program, so much so that the young man 👨 is still missing a tooth that he displaced earlier this season out in left field.

Final thought – props to Coach Burcham for his day long efforts on the Diamond 💎 after the latest storm early Saturday morning.

Head Coach Casey Burcham is hard at it and has been all morning long !

3:39 pm – closing in on first pitch….

Photo 📷 Credit : Ethan Edwards

Looking back at the Girls 👧 Soccer ⚽️ Senior Night, I wanted to share a handful of stories about four people, three that were in the stands for the Ceremony and the match.

#1 – Mama Petty…. the process of preparing the lengthy script for the Soccer team was running behind schedule because 60 minutes earlier I was trying hard to assist Martin McKenzie with his Senior Day event.

Scrambling hard to play catch up, my Cellphone 📱 lit up and it was a call from Mrs P. She was reaching out to me on behalf of Mr David Boatman, the Father of Alexis Boatman. Dad had a fun fact about his Kiddo ( Senior Assisasian Champ 🏆 2025). This made me smile during a stressful time because it was one Senior parent who was watching out for another Senior parent.

Thank You Ma’am !

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This one should make Marion Harris smile 😃! Mr Bill Gallimore was in The House as well.

Our resident Cavalier Super Fan attended his very first Carroll County High School 🏫 Soccer match!

Bill was kind enough to ✔ in with his thoughts on his maiden voyage…

” We finally made it to a soccer game and we enjoyed it good to see everyone do the work that made it happen. Surprised me how fast the game moves along. Wish they could have scored but looked like a well played game. You guys did a great job from the press box also.”

Thanks for coming out Bill ! More free Soccer ⚽️ next week on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday nights 🌙

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We will call 📞 this one about an older Brother, a Wise Man and a young Man with unlimited potential. You noticed the photo above being credited to Senior Ethan Edwards, here’s that back story.

Allen Worrell had brought me a copy of this week’s Carroll News and when I finished reading the Senior Day script I glanced down at the front page to notice the story about Ethan Edwards getting excepted into Harvard University!

This lead me to create a quick post 📫

I knew that Ethan Edwards was going places!!!! Didn’t know that it would be Harvard !!!

I sent the link to Ethan, Dr Oliver McBride and my older brother, Wayne Carter in Sellersburg, Indiana.

All three took the time to send me a response with Ethan sending me a pic of the Press Box that I was announcing from to let me know he was in the stands.

Next one came from Wayne:

Going to Harvard & the young man has chops! Thank you 🙏 for sharing the good news 🗞️

For that one to make sense, I need to share quite possibly my most cherished moment since arriving in Laurel Fork almost five years ago.

During our Town Hall meeting on education back at our Annual Banquet, about 15 minutes in, Dr McBride leaned over to me and whispered, ” This young Man has Chops.”

Turning to Shannon Dalton in hopes of her convincing Ethan to not only participate in my panel but to lead it, created a moment that I will never forget.

The third response came from Dr McBride :

” Proud of Ethan and excited for his opportunity!!! He is an example of the potential that lies within the students in Carroll County!!! Our responsibility along with parents is to provide them opportunity. For our students whose families may not provide the encouragement needed, our responsibility is to help them discover what lies within and help them discover what is possible.”

Ethan Edwards is the poster child for why there’s an A at the front of our ASPN. Such an impressive young man that is on his way to making Carroll County High School a player in the Ivy League 👏.

The Podcast !

https://theridgepodcast.com/podcast/88-oneofus-care-banquet-education-panel-mrs-dalton-dr-burnette-dr-mcbride-mr-carter/

It’s been nine days since Rookie Head Coach Adam Nester has been able to play a baseball game. His team sits at 15-1 with two games remaining on the calendar.

There will be no post season tournament this year, no #1 versus #2 showdown so the regular season Champs are the only Champs the District will have in 2024-2025.

Saturday afternoon and Tuesday evening are the final two contests remaining and the Cavaliers are sitting with a magic number of one. The Knights and the Bobcats are both set to visit Bill Worrell Field and CCHS owns a victory over both of the teams already. It’s worth noting that the battle with the Knights up in Buchanan was a nail 💅 bighter.

The unprecedented success under the guidance of previous Coach, Steve Combs left Nester with BIG shoes 👞 to fill. Combs closed out his reign with five straight crowns 👑 but the latest edition has not missed a beat. Mother Nature has proven to be the biggest challenge this Spring as the team has lost more games by not getting to play than they have on the actual Diamond.

Today at 4:00 pm is the slated time for the First Pitch !

Congratulations 👏👏👏 to Coach Nester, his staff and the players on their latest team victory lap ! Congratulations to Head Varsity Coach, Casey Burcham for the Spring as a whole.