St. Stephens, Alex Central hope to get softball games in today

If they continue winning, the St. Stephens and Alexander Central girls' softball teams likely face playing back-to-back games to get into the state's Final Four tournaments.

Rainy weather on Wednesday pushed St. Stephens' third-round 3A home playoff game against Asheville Roberson to today at 5 p.m. at St. Stephens.

Wet field conditions also kept Alexander Central from resuming its third round 4A game against defending state champion Butler, and that game resumes (tied 1-1) in the top of the fifth inning today at 5:30 p.m. in Taylorsville.

Fourth round games are scheduled to be completed by Friday, so the Indians and Cougars, if they win, probably face two games in two days.

St. Stephens (24-3) and Asheville Roberson (26-2) have been trying to get on the field since Tuesday, and they already know who is waiting for them if they do win today.

North Iredell (15-7), the No. 5 seed from the North Piedmont 3A has knocked off three straight higher seeds — Enka, Fred T. Foard and R-S Central, all on the road — to get to the fourth round.

The Raiders will go to St. Stephens or Asheville Roberson and that winner advances to Walnut Creek Softball Complex in Raleigh for the 3A Final Four.

Eastern Randolph (24-4) and Southwestern Randolph (26-1) will meet to determine the other West 3A team headed to Walnut Creek.

In the 3A East bracket, these teams are still vying for two spots in Raleigh: Greenville Conley (23-1) or Pikeville Aycock (24-2) and one from a field of South Johnston (21-6), Triton (22-4), Southwest Edgecombe (14-11) and Northern Vance (18-2).

St. Stephens has reached the double-elimination state tournament once, in 2003, and did not win a game in Raleigh.

In Taylorsville today, Alexander Central (26-1) needs its first postseason victory over Butler (20-5) to get to the next round.

The Butler-Alexander Central winner meets Ardrey Kell (21-4) or Crest (22-1) next. North Mecklenburg (17-5) is at North Davidson (26-1) in the other West 4A bracket.

In the 4A East, Cape Fear (20-5) and New Bern (16-7) play for a berth in Raleigh and Apex (19-2) has advanced and awaits the winner of Garner (23-3) against Fuquay-Varnia (18-4) for a spot in the double-elimination tournament.

2A BASEBALL: Patton (25-6) opens its best-of-three series against Mount Pleasant (24-6) for the West 2A title tonight at 7 p.m. at Patton, weather permitting.

Game 2 is scheduled Friday night at 7 p.m. at Mount Pleasant and a third game, if needed, is set for 7 p.m. Saturday at Patton.

Patton athletic director Rich Linen said if rain postpones today's series opener, the schools will consider playing Game 1 at Mount Pleasant on Friday night at 7 p.m., then finish up on Saturday with Game 2 (and Game 3, if needed) at Patton with game times to be determined.

Patton advanced Tuesday, winning 5-0 at Hibriten, and Mount Pleasant won at home 1-0 in eight innings over West Lincoln to set up the series.

This is the first best-of-three West series for either school. Patton is in its second year, going 40-17 under head coach Brandon Scott, and has won its last 12 games.

After making the baseball postseason once from 1984 through 1998, Mount Pleasant is in the state playoffs for the seventh time since 1999.

The Tigers are 8-6 in the playoffs since 1984, including 6-4 at home, and they did not have a road postseason victory until beating East Lincoln 12-8 and Forbush 10-4 in away games this year.

The Rocky River 2A's top seed, the Tigers haven't faced a Unifour team in the baseball playoffs since beating West Caldwell 9-1 at Mount Pleasant in the first round of the 2000 2A playoffs.

The West series winner gains a best-of-three series against the East 2A champion next week at a site to be determined by the North Carolina High School Athletic Association (NCHSAA).

The East series beginning on Thursday has Fairmont (19-6) going to McMichael (22-5) for Game 1.

None of last year's Final Four — Ledford and East Rutherford in the West and Hillsborough Orange and Whiteville in the East — got back to a best-of-three series.

Hillsborough Orange beat East Rutherford in two games to win last year's state 2A championship.