Greene Central sweeps Burns to claim 2-A state title

BURLINGTON — It’s been a while, but Greene Central is back on top of 2-A high school baseball in North Carolina after sweeping Lawndale Burns in the best-of-three NCHSAA 2-A championship series Saturday at Burlington Athletic Stadium.

Led by third-year head coach Ben Brann, the Rams took home their sixth state title with an 8-5 defeat of the Bulldogs on Saturday after blanking Burns 2-0 in Friday’s series opener. The win was the 28th for East top seed and 2-A Eastern Plains Conference champion Greene Central against one loss, a one-run setback in extra innings against Whiteville in the 2-A East championship series opener. Burns, the No. 1 seed from the West and king of the 1-A/2-A Southern Piedmont Conference, suffered its first losses after 31 straight wins.

Greene Central senior Braden Burress took home the series MVP honor with a complete-game victory on the mound in game 2 after getting the save Friday. Burress scattered 11 hits by the Bulldogs as he gave up three earned runs out of five total. He struck out two and walked three in his final game.

Sophomore third baseman Riley Radford slugged a three-run home run in the bottom of the first inning and the Rams added three more in the second. He finished with four RBIs. Will Radford also had two of Greene Central’s five hits, while Burress had the other hit and scored twice.

Burns, which committed four errors, stranded eight runners in the finale.

Senior left-hander Austin Hardy got the job done on the mound Friday for the Rams. He gave up five hits and walked five while striking out seven in six innings. Burress pitched the seventh to get the save and led the Rams at the plate with a 2-for-4 showing.

Greene Central plated a run in the top of the fourth inning, thanks to one of the Bulldogs’ three errors in the game.

It was the ninth state championship appearance for Greene Central and the first since 2002 when Russell Brann, the father of current Rams head coach Ben Brann, led the Rams.

This is Greene Central’s first baseball state title not won by legendary head coach James R. “Rabbit” Fulghum, the Wilson County native who directed the Rams to state 2-A crowns in 2000, 1990 and 1987 and 3-A championships in 1980 and 1972. Fulghum’s successor at Greene Central was Russell Brann.

Ben Brann graduated from Greene Central in 2013 and went on to a standout career at Barton College before returning to his alma mater last year.

The Rams went 22-4 and reached the fourth round of the state 2-A playoffs in 2023.

The post Greene Central sweeps Burns to claim 2-A state title first appeared on Restoration NewsMedia .