The Johnston County U14 All-star team became the Tar Heel League State Champion by defeating Burke County in the championship round of the Tar Heel Leagues, Inc. state tournament that was played the weekend of July 17-19 in Wilkesboro.

The event began with opening ceremonies Friday afternoon that were followed with first round games. Johnston County squared off with Western Harnett in a 7 p.m. contest. Johnston took a 5-0 lead into the fifth inning and broke it open by scoring 10 in the frame to make the final 15-0 in five innings.

Second round play began for Johnston County in a Saturday afternoon contest with Bear Grass. Johnston again jumped out to an early lead by scoring two in the first and six in the second. Johnston County added four more in the fourth and one in the fifth on their way to winning 13-2 in five innings.

Johnston County played their third round game later that Saturday as they took the field to play Burke County. Neither team managed to score until the third inning when Burke scored three. They would go on to add five more over the next four innings to take an 8-1 win over Johnston in seven innings.

The loss forced Johnston County into the loser bracket and set up a rematch Sunday afternoon between Johnston County and Bear Grass who had eliminated Erwin earlier Saturday.

Head coach Lee Benson was quoted as saying that “the entire team seemed to come out on Sunday with the attitude that they were not going to be denied” and that proved to be the case.

The rematch between Johnston and Bear Grass was dominated by Johnston County’s bats. Scoring 10 in the second, five in the third, four in the fourth and four more in the fifth, Johnston County defeated Bear Grass going away, 23-3. The win put Johnston County in the championship game against Burke County.

But with Johnston’s loss to Burke in the earlier round it meant that Johnston County would have to defeat Burke County twice to take the title of state champion. Pitching and defense was the theme in the first of the two championship games. Johnston County did score two in the first but that was it for the scoring till Burke managed to push one across in the fifth inning. Johnston added one in the sixth and took a 3-1 lead into the seventh where Burke County managed to add one run but left the bases loaded to give Johnston County the win 3-2. The result set up a winner take all between Burke and Johnston County.

Johnston again took an early lead scoring one in the first, one in the second, two in the third and three in the top of the fourth for a 7-0 lead heading into the bottom of the frame. Burke County did get on the board in the fourth scoring two. Johnston County answered Burke by adding three more in the sixth making the score 10-2. Burke County was able to add only one more run in the bottom of the seventh, giving Johnston County the win 10-3 and the State title.