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The Wilson Times
Tobs get jump on Memorial Day with Thursday opener
By Paul Durham,
2024-05-20
Wilson Tobs players wait to congratulate a teammate who scored a run during a game June 29, 2023, against the Morehead City Marlins at Fleming Stadium. Sheldon Vick | Special to the Times
With a much earlier start to the season than usual and a new rival team less than an hour away, the Wilson Tobs begin their 28th season as a perennial contender in the summer collegiate baseball Coastal Plain League still seeking their first Petitt Cup championship.
The Tobs will play four exhibition games this season, including one June 27 against the Chinese Taipei national team, but not before they begin their CPL season right off the bat Thursday evening at Fleming Stadium against East Division nemesis Morehead City Marlins.
The schedule shift was enacted by the CPL to give players time with their families at the end of the summer, leading the CPL to start its season the Thursday before Memorial Day instead of the Thursday afterwards. The regular season will wrap up July 27 with the Petitt Cup playoffs to start immediately thereafter. However, the earlier start means many NCAA Division I players are not available because their collegiate seasons are still going.
Noah Cartwright, a former assistant coach at Chowan University, will lead the Wilson Tobs in their 28th Coastal Plain League season that starts May 23. Wilson Tobs
CARTWRIGHT THE NEW SHERIFF
Former Chowan University assistant coach Noah Cartwright will lead the Tobs this summer, replacing one-and-done 2023 skipper Tony Rosselli. Cartwright, a former Chowan player and an Elizabeth City Northeastern High product, will have veteran pitching coach Ted Bergquist, who spent more than 20 years umpiring college and minor league baseball before getting back into coaching in 2020, and Tyler Cotto as an assistant coach. Cartwright pointed to Tobs director of player personnel and former head coach Bryan Hill, the head coach at Chowan, as instrumental in him landing the Tobs job this summer.
Cartwright, who coached the River City Skippers in his hometown in the Old North State League last summer, is well acquainted with Wilson, the Tobs and Fleming Stadium. A self-proclaimed “history nerd,” Cartwright is well delighted to spend the summer at Fleming, which opened in 1939 and holds the North Carolina Baseball Museum within its walls.
“I’ve been to Tobs games before because I played for Bryan and I coached with him so I’ve always heard him talk about the Tobs, so I’ve always tried to go out there and least catch a game or two a year,” he said.
Cartwright, who coached third base as well as catchers and outfielders at Chowan, said that he knows the Tobs are a hit in the community.
“They seem like they really embrace the Wilson Tobs as a whole and the fan base is there,” he said of the Wilson fans. “So I’m very excited about just being in Wilson and having the fan base around us too and just seeing all the players feed off that energy that they bring.”
When reminded that some fans can be a little, well, fanatic about their Tobs, Cartwright assured: “If we have a losing streak and the fans are giving me crap about it, I will wear that all day because that means they care!”
Tanner Halvorson, pitching in a game for Barton College on March 3 at Nixon Field, will play for the Wilson Tobs this summer in the Coastal Plain League after spending part of the 2022 CPL season with the Tobs. Paul Durham | Times
FINDING PLAYERS
Cartwright’s presence as head coach gives the Tobs options they didn’t have last summer under Rosselli, who coached at NCAA Division I Indiana State. NCAA rules stipulate that summer league coaches cannot be from Div. I or II programs in order for players from junior colleges, NAIA college or the NCAA Transfer Portal to be on the rosters of those summer collegiate teams.
While CPL teams are constantly updating rosters as players come and go over the summer, not having access to those three areas, which Tobs general manager Mike Bell said contains a considerable number of players, certainly contributed to the Tobs’ late-season collapse in 2023. Needing only one victory to clinch a Petitt Cup playoff berth, the Tobs, who had won 13 straight games earlier last season, lost four straight and missed the playoffs for the second time in three seasons after playing in the Petitt Cup championship series in 2022.
Bell, in his 13th year with the franchise and ninth as GM, said that the late collapse stemmed from player attrition, which is typical in the CPL by the first week of August, but made worse by not having access to juco, NAIA and Transfer Portal players.
Bell also noted that two years ago, the Tobs lost to the Savannah Bananas in the Petitt Cup championship series. It was the final games for the Bananas in the CPL, who transitioned fully into a traveling baseball entertainment show. Savannah exploded into the CPL in 2019 and lost to Morehead City in the finals. There were no Petitt Cup playoffs during the COVID-19 summer of 2020 but the Bananas won the next three Petitt Cup titles in dominating fashion before turning pro, so to speak.
“So I mean, you look at these last two years, and you literally sit here and say, one factor: Players leaving,” Bell said. “The other factor: the Savannah (player) pool. Savannah’s out of it; we’ve got a good system and a good coaching staff. We’ve taken care of those two factors and so, it’s just one of those things where if you look at the league, the best team, in my opinion, in the league every year, is either us or Morehead and we’re in the same division. Peninsula is always in there too.”
Barton College teammates Jared Beebe (34) and Chase Waddell (6) will reunite on the Wilson Tobs roster this summer. Matt Proseus | Special to the Times
BULLDOGS POPULATE ROSTER
While the Tobs roster is still in a state of flux, there are handful of players from the 2023 team that have committed to returning as well as Tanner Halvorson, a key cog in the Tobs’ 2022 CPL runner-up team who just wrapped up a stellar career at Barton College. Cartwright said that Halvorson, who was an All-America in 2023 for the Bulldogs but did not play summer ball in 2023, will likely be the Opening Night starter Thursday against the Marlins.
Halvorson will have several Barton teammates in Tobs black-and-gold this summer, including returning catcher Chase Waddell, a Wilson native and Hunt High product. Pitchers Andrew Simone and Brett Anderson and infielder Jared Beebe round out the Barton contingent. The five Bulldogs are the most from any one college team.
“I think Halvorson and Anderson are going to do really well on the mound for us,” Cartwright said. “I saw them pitch against us and they were very dominant against us. I’m very excited to see them pitch.”
Other potential returners for the Tobs include North Carolina A&T outfielder and Southern Nash High product A.J. Jones as well as the University of Nebraska mound duo Caleb Clark and Jackson Brockett, Central Michigan pitcher Jonah Milchuk and West Texas A&M hurler Reese Miller. University of Mount Olive head coach Rob Watt’s son, Rowan Watt, is expected on the roster as an infielder after his freshman season at New Orleans.
Cartwright thinks that there is great potential for a lot of offense, based on the production the Tobs signees have posted this spring at their respective colleges. The Tobs skipper also noted there are several hurlers who can reach the upper 90s in terms of velocity.
Wilson Tobs general manager Mike Bell leads the “Pump it up!” cheers during a game against the Peninsula Pilots on July 8, 2023, at Fleming Stadium. Sheldon Vick | Special to the Times
WELCOME, YARD GNOMES
Wilson will have its closest rival since 1998, the Tobs’ second season as a charter member of the CPL, when the Greenville Yard Gnomes open play at Guy Smith Stadium. As fellow East Division members, the Tobs and Yard Gnomes will meet nine times in the 48-game regular-season schedule.
Previously, the closest CPL rival to Wilson was Holly Springs, which has never really been much of a rivalry despite being in the same division. Before that, Fayetteville was Wilson’s shortest trip but now, the 35-minute drive down U.S. Highway 264 East ranks as the quickest CPL road trip for the Tobs since the Rocky Mount Rockfish ceased operations following the 1998 season in which they played in the second Petitt Cup championship series.
Proximity aside, the Tobs and Yard Gnomes are a new chapter in a long-running baseball rivalry between Wilson and Greenville, which typically has had the upper hand in Little League and high school encounters.
“Yeah, I think it’s great for both teams, really, and for the CPL, too,” Cartwright said. “Everybody loves a good rivalry, but I think it’s really great. Greenville is always been known to have good baseball culture and town and they just love baseball. And Wilson does too. So I think you put those two together and there’s going to be a great rivalry between the two of us. I mean, obviously, hopefully we’re gonna come out on top of that rivalry, but it’s hard to tell what Greenville’s going to be like until we see them.”
That won’t take long. The Tobs visit the Yard Gnomes at Guy Smith on Monday, May 27, the fourth game of the season for Wilson, and then welcome the Gnomes to Fleming the following night, May 28.
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