Norfleet joins June Pinecrest graduates Brandon Cain (NC A&T), Brad Davis (Methodist) and Eric Marion (High Point) in trying to make their mark at the college level in baseball.
Norfleet is expected to be starting at third base and batting fifth when Francis Marion begins the season with a non-conference contest at Wingate on Saturday, beginning at noon. The Patriots from Florence, S.C., are picked to finish second this season behind USC-Aiken in a preseason coaches’ poll. They are ranked 11th in the national preseason Division II poll.
The West End resident batted a combined .456 with nine home runs and 65 RBI in his junior and senior seasons at Pinecrest. He was an all-state selection in his senior year. He has already committed to play for the Rock Hill Sox of the Southern Collegiate Baseball League, a wooden bat organization, this summer.
According to Pinecrest coach Jeff Hewitt, Cain is making a strong bid to land the starting right field job at Division I A&T. Davis is in the mix for one of the outfield positions at Division III Methodist and Marion is expected to be a back-up on the left side of the infield for Division I High Point. High Point is also an early starter, kicking off the regular season with a game against Bethune-Cookman in Daytona Beach on Friday.
The four players all earned all-conference honors for Pinecrest last year, and their combined .364 batting average, 28 home runs and 198 RBI over the last two years will be difficult for Hewitt to replace.
Former Union Pines three-sport star Lisa Jackson helped Methodist pull a game out of the fire with four seconds to play against Shenandoah in Winchester, Va., on Sunday.
The Monarchs trailed 62-59 after a Shenandoah basket with 51 seconds left in the game. Moments later, the Monarchs’ Stacy Williams cut the lead to one with a layup. With the home team struggling to advance the ball into the forecourt, Williams stole it and fed Jackson for a short bank shot and the win.
After leading the Monarchs in scoring as a freshman, Jackson is third on this year’s squad with a 9.8 per game average. She is first on the team in steals and is 42-for 51 from the charity stripe (82.4 percent). The Monarchs are 9-8 overall and 4-3 in the USA-South Conference.
“She penetrates very well to the basket and passes very well,” Monarch coach Dee Dee Jarman said on Tuesday. “She is becoming a better defender.”
Jackson’s teammate, Monica Cheek, a North Moore graduate, has made only four appearances for the Monarchs as she recovers from knee surgery last spring.
Former Pinecrest and North Carolina A&T player, Henry Douglas of Southern Pines, is back with the Chicago Rush of the Arena Football League.
The Rush lost its season-opener in Denver on Sunday when the Colorado Crush scored on an 11-yard pass with one second left in the game, breaking a 56-56 tie. Douglas, a wide receiver, caught six passes for 96 yards and one touchdown.
If 2003 Cy Young award winner Eric Gagne is really as ready to go as he told L.A. Times sports writer Bill Plaschke recently, it bodes well for new manager Grady Little and the Dodgers.
Little, who lives in Pinehurst, replaced Jim Tracy after the Dodgers went 71-91 last season. He was 188-126 in two seasons with the Red Sox before being let go in the wake of the dramatic loss to the Yankees in the seventh game of the 2003 American League Championship Series.
Gagne saved 152 games in 158 opportunities from 2002-2004 before being shutdown by elbow surgery last June. The Dodgers protected themselves by trading for Danys Baez, who had 41 saves for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays last season.
New Dodger General Manager Ned Collettti has been active in the off-season adding such players as former Atlanta shortstop Rafael Furcal, and a couple of former members of Little’s Red Sox teams in Bill Mueller and Nomar Garciaparra. Mueller will play third base and the oft-injured Garciaparra is expected to be converted into a first baseman.
James Baldwin of Southern Pines recently signed a minor league baseball contract with Toronto. The 34-year-old veteran of 11 major league seasons is invited to go to spring training with the Blue Jays and can make $450,000 if he is added to the big league roster.
Baldwin was an American League all-star in 2000 when he was 14-7 for the Chicago White Sox. The Pinecrest graduate was 0-2, with one save and an ERA of .381 in 28 appearances as a relief pitcher for Baltimore and Texas last season. His career record in the majors is 79-74.
Charlie Bergmann can be reached at sports@thepilot.com
