Area stars shine on North-South series’ opening night

One of the top area baseball players made arguably the most individual noise in the North-South All-Star baseball series’ opening night.

Another made sure his squad won.

Aynor’s Caleb Nobles went 4-for-4 with a home run, two runs and an RBI in the AAA/AA South’s 5-3 loss to the AAA/AA North all-stars while Conway’s Reid Hardwick had a walk-off RBI single to propel the AAAA/A South team to a 5-4 win Friday at Myrtle Beach’s Ripken Experience.

For Nobles, it was another postseason highlight that included plenty of celebrations with his high school team after the Blue Jackets won the Class AA state back in May.

“It’s been busy – county councils and stuff, trying to play legion,” Nobles said after his strong performance that also included a pair of nice defensive plays from his spot at shortstop.

“I was just trying to get out here and play my game, do the best I could. I wasn’t really trying to prove anything.”

Nobles and Hardwick were among 10 Grand Strand players selected to the North-South games, and the eight who accepted invitations were all in the starting lineups.

Hardwick and Carolina Forest’s Patrick Orlando held down the middle infield for the AAAA/A South. For the AAA/AA South, Nobles was joined in the starting lineup by Desmond Dozier (Loris), Michael Calamari (Myrtle Beach), Liam Bloom and Grayson Stoneking (St. James) and Levi Almond (Waccamaw).

Waccamaw baseball coach Jeff Gregory, who was appointed to lead the AAA/AA squad, didn’t hesitate when picking his starting lineup.

“I felt like it was the right thing to do with the local guys, get them out early,” Gregory said. “Most of the coaches that are going to come to represent the players are going to be close.”

As a group, the area’s representatives were a combined seven-for-19 with three RBIs, two runs and a pair of walks. The last of the night came in extra innings with Hardwick’s hit in the eighth.

“Never thought we’d go into extra innings in this game,” Hardwick said. “Our defense didn’t start off as strong as we thought. Finally came up there, big time, got my only hit of the game.

“It’s important to win. We’re just out here to have fun. We’re done with high school; let’s go have fun.”

Friday’s winners will face off at 11 a.m. Saturday, while the two losing teams from the opening night will do the same. It will be the final high school action of the season for any local players, and many of them will again be featured.

Orlando is slated to start on the mound for the AAAA/A South in the de facto title game. And Nobles is expected to get at least a couple more at bats before he heads off to Florence-Darlington Tech later this summer to being his college career.

“He played really well; local guys, gotta be happy for him,” Gregory said. “He’s had a great year. It’s something for him before he goes off to school to put that in the back of a bigger program’s mind.”

This story was originally published June 10, 2016 at 10:28 PM with the headline "Area stars shine on North-South series’ opening night."