Moye follows his former ECU pitcher father’s footsteps to the mound and closes Greenville Little League City Championship with a heroic effort
Moye threw two scoreless innings to close out a shutout win in the deciding game
GREENVILLE, N.C. (WITN) - The Greenville Little League City Championship series was decided on Friday night with a 1-0 win for East Carolina Auto and Truck Center.
10-year old Thomas Moye with a heroic series-clinching pitching effort earned our Pepsi Sports Spotlight.
“I walked off in the first game with a hit into right center,” says East Carolina Auto and Truck Center player Thomas Moye, “It can not get any better. I was just hoping it would be the City Championship and I was hoping it would be with me pitching and here it is and it happened.”
The right guy for the job in the best-of-three series. Thomas Moye helped his team win both wins to take the series 2-1. Thomas has gravitated to pitching though, just like his father Tom Moye.
“My family members they were all baseball,” says Moye, “I’ve always loved to pitch. My dad was a pitcher for ECU so I’ve always wanted to follow his footsteps. He’s just helped me all through the way.”
But for Thomas it took some work with his bat to get him where he wanted to be.
“Me and him made a pact at the beginning of the year if he started swinging hard I would let him pitch and pitch more,” says East Carolina Auto and Truck Center Manager Todd Boyd, “He started swinging the bat and we started letting him pitch.”
A 10-year-old on his Little League team who can have players old as 12, Thomas came in to pitch with the City Championship on the line, a runner in scoring position, with one out in the fifth inning of a 1-0 deciding game.
“We play as a team and we try to pick people up when they get down,” says Thomas, “I’m just really glad I have good teammates backing me up.”
He came back out for the sixth and faced a player who had an early growth spurt. He stands about the same height as many of the coaches.
“It was really scary because I knew if I let a home run happen it would tie the game and we would have one more chance at it,” says Moye, “and that would be really terrifying. I just did the best that I could do and I did it.”
Thomas got through it and then struck out the last batter to clinch the City Championship for his team.
“Coming in tonight to finish off a 1-0 baseball game as a 10-year-old is pretty special,” says Boyd.
“It was just really exciting for me,” says Moye, “and then just everybody just started crowding on me... It feels awesome. I still got two more years. To be the best you gotta beat the best.”
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