Commentary:

Yes, Virginia,

Watauga’s win a biggie
By Steve Behr, sports editor
sports@wataugademocrat.com

SAWMILLS — Usually, the importance of a victory can be judged by the celebration by the winning team afterward.

The dogpile the Watauga baseball team put together along the first baseline following the Pioneers’ 1-0 win over South Caldwell gave a pretty good idea of what the upset meant to the team.

This one was a biggie.

Then again, any victory over a baseball power, such as South Caldwell, is big. Tack on the fact it came against the defending 4-A champions and against a team that has ruled the Northwestern 4-A Conference like a third-world dictator and Watauga’s reaction was understandable.

Oh, I know that seven out of nine starters from South Cadwell’s state championship team graduated. One, Madison Bumgarner, was the 10th selection of the Major League draft, taken by the San Francisco Giants.

But South Caldwell is not a one-hit wonder. The 2008 version went into the game 6-0 and had outscored its opponents 64-3. Not every win was like beating the New York Yankees, but they did beat some good programs during that stretch.

South Caldwell ace Jimmy Messer, a North Carolina signee who has hit 93 on the radar gun and is very likely to also be drafted this summer, is also very good. Messer can also throw a curveball and a change-up for strikes, and some say he can be tougher to hit than Bumgarner.

I remember the first time I saw Messer pitch. He was a sophomore pitching against a 32-0 North Forsyth in the state 4-A Western Regional series at Spartans field.

I don’t remember actually seeing the baseball since it looked like Messer was throwing bullets at North Forsyth. South Caldwell won the game 1-0 and eventually the series.

I also remember seeing Tyler Moore, Messer’s counterpart Monday, pitch on the varsity level for the first time, also as a sophomore.

It didn’t look like he threw hard enough to egg a house. Yet his mixture of speeds, breaking pitches and old-fashioned guts befuddled a heavy-hitting A.C. Reynolds team for five innings. It was the same Rockets team that had hit six home runs in a 20-8 win over the Pioneers at Watauga Canaveral earlier that season.

The fact that it was a Northwestern 4-A Conference Tournament game only added to the expectations that would be placed on Moore’s shoulders. A.C. Reynolds finally figured Moore out by the fifth inning, but a key part of Watauga’s future was in place.

I was told there were up to 10 pro scouts watching Messer. And no, I’m not suggesting that Moore should be drafted this summer.

But college scouts should take a good, looonnnnnggg look at Moore, who stole the show Monday night. His velocity has improved dramatically since that 2006 afternoon, but throwing a baseball through a brick wall is not the only way to getting batters out.

Moore just knows how to pitch. That may sound simple, but he has an arsenal of pitches, including a slider that drove the Spartans crazy Monday night, and does not need a 90 MPH fastball to get outs. When it comes to pitching, Moore’s brain is just as important to him as his right arm.

Moore also needs a good defense behind him, which the Pioneers are more than happy to provide, as they did Monday night. That’s no shock, however, as Pete Hardee-coached teams usually play solid defense and make very few mental mistakes.

There is little time for celebration. Watauga plays at A.C. Reynolds Tuesday night and at East Burke Thursday.

However, you don’t get many chances to win games like this. So enjoy, at least for a while.