After three tough games the Region 1 baseball team was able to leave the 2011 Powerade State games with a win as they topped Region 5 by the score off 11-5 on Sunday to leave Winston-Salem with a 1-3 record.
Though scores and records where kept, the State Games’ importance extends beyond wins and losses. For the four area players who made the team — Northside pitcher Brandon Marsh, Plymouth second baseman Chris Rogerson and Riverside’s Will Gurganus (OF) and Matt Wisniewski (C) — the most important factor for them was that they had the opportunity to play baseball in a big time atmosphere in front of several scouts.
Region 1 assistant coach, and Riverside head coach, Hank Tice said that all the players performed admirably during the five-day event, which was played at BB&T Ballpark, Wake Forest University and Forsyth Country Day School.
“We had good week. Up here wins and loses, other than trying to get a medal, is really a non-factor,” Tice said.  “We carried 19 really great kids to Winston-Salem. They played good, we saw some good pitching and they got to play at some really nice facilities. Every kid on our team represented their high school, their high school coaches and their communities very well.”
Region 1 began the games on Thursday with a 6-3 loss to Region 3, and then fell 11-7 to Region 5 on Friday before losing 6-4 to Region 7 on Saturday. Tice said the Region 1 squad tends to have a tough time at the games because it doesn’t have as many schools and players to compete for roster as some of the more populated regions.
“In Region 1 we have less schools to pull from. We’re going up against regions that have about 175 kids come out for tryouts and we have about 50,” Tice said. “Every year our backs are kind of up against the wall, but every year the kids we have taken have stepped out on the field and competed and held their own and played well.”
One of the biggest challenges some of the Region 1 players face is trying to adjust to high level pitching.
“We have a lot of kids that are not ready to face pitchers who throw 86-87 miles per hour with good curveballs, good sliders and good changeups,” Tice said. “But our kids did fine and they were able to come back home with a win.”
Another obstacle facing the athletes is the adjustment to having scouts with stopwatches and radar guns track your every move. That kind of atmosphere general takes players a day or so to get used to. That might have been the case for Marsh, who seemed to get better as the games went on.
“Marsh pitched an inning Thursday and was just OK; he got the ball across the plate and looked pretty good,” Tice said. “But he came back on Friday and threw two innings and was really good. Then he threw an inning on Sunday and I thought it was the best inning he threw there. His velocity was great and he got his curveball and his changeup over. He looked like a different kid Sunday then he did Thursday.
“I didn’t talk to him a lot, but over the last four or five years a lot of our pitchers have thrown better their second start rather then their first. I don’t know if it’s because of the stadiums or all the radar guns or what, but the last inning he pitched was as good as we had up there.”
Tice said Rogerson put up a solid performance in the field and at the plate.
“Chris Rogerson played really, really well defensively,” Tice said. “He had an RBI sac fly (Sunday) and he squared some balls up and hit some balls hard. He made a really, really good play to his glove side at second base on Friday. He held his own at second base every game he played.”
Tice said he also saw a lot of good things from Gurganus.
“Will played good defense and had about four or five hits here,” Tice said. “He also got a chance to play some at third and made a few outs. Once again, he did what he was supposed to do on the field.”
Wisniewski, Gurganus’ Riverside teammate, also played well.
“Will played really good behind the plate. I don’t think he got a hit but he put some balls in play,” Tice said. “In four games we only had three past balls from both our catchers and up here that is priority No. 1.”
Overall, the experience was beneficial for all the players.
“They got a chance to get out of eastern North Carolina and see how many good baseball players there are in North Carolina, especially when you go west of Raleigh,” Tice said. “Then, they got to play in some great facilities. Wake Forest is all Astroturf, which was a big adjustment for all our infielders. Then the Forsyth Stadium, which was a minor league ballpark, was as nice as I ever stepped foot in. Plus, they got a chance to play in front of a lot of college coaches.”