I really like my pitching rods as I am guilty as sin about loving to go pitch. Probably makes me bias, umm no guaranteed it makes me biased.

I have several I like a lot but out of all my junk gear I have to say I have no better rod for my small shallow cranks like the 1/4 oz Baby 1- Minus or the 1/4 oz Bomber Square A than this old Fenwick. Its a Fenwick HMG model GT72M-F-CB listed as a Medium, Moderate Fast 7'2” length.

Excellent rod for most of my 1/4 to 3/8 oz or small cranks. I cant recall exactly what the rod cost me I believe it was $59 or $69 they were on sale as they were discontinued for quite some time I believe when I came across them. I usually have a old Lews Speed Spool in the 6.4:1 on it, that feels really nice in hand to me. Best fish I have caught on one of these combos is a 6 1/4 lbs.
Here is a pic down below.

As for a cheap reel I can say has been a reel I don't mind using as much as some of my nicer reels that cost 4 times as much is a Lews Walmart edition called Mark Rose edition model MR1SH. Its basically the same shape and size as the standard Speed Spool but I believe its all Graphite/plastic. Its really similar to the Hero model already mentioned. It has performed well beyond its $49.95 list price for years. I use to use it for everything but now days I have put it in semi retirement not intentionally but just because I have so many reels it doesn't get used that often. Here is a pic of the reel not long after I got it.