The West Rowan sophomore catcher hammered the first pitch from former teammate Brian Hatley over the fence in right-center field in the last of the seventh inning to give the Falcons a 4-3 upset victory over previously undefeated East Rowan.

East’s 14-game winning streak was snapped by the sixth-place Falcons, who improved to 5-5 in the 3A South Piedmont Conference baseball race and 7-7 overall. East remains in first place at 9-1, two games ahead of Piedmont (7-3), which fell to Sun Valley last night.

Hatley, who starred for West Rowan for three seasons before transferring to East, had cut short a West threat in the fifth inning by strike out John Brooks with the go-ahead run on third base. The East senior right-hander also stopped the Falcons in the sixth on one infield hit by Justin Graham.

Hampton, a left-hander, then stepped up to the plate and belted Hatley’s first pitch over the fence for his second homer and the third of his career.

“I had had a pretty rough day at the plate,” said Hampton, who was struck out twice by East starter Julian Sides before grounding out to first in his third at-bat.

“I went up there the fourth time and just tried to clear everything out of my head and make contact. I knew that he was going to try to blow it past me, because that’s just the way Hatley pitches,” said Hampton.

“I was looking for a fastball all the way, and he threw it right in the kitchen.I just made contact. I knew it was gone as soon as I hit it. It was one of those times you just feel it,” he added.

West, aiming for one of the SPC’s three playoff berths, needed a victory over East, which had downed the Falcons 4-3 earlier in the season.

“It was one of the biggest shots I ever hit. It really meant a lot to me. Not only was it East, one of our rivals, but it was Hatley pitching, and he left us last year. That’s what fired us up. That’s all we talked about before the game. We knew Hatley was going to pitch against us. We knew they were going to bring him in. We knew we had to hit the ball and take care of business,” said Hatley.

Coach Chris Cauble of the Falcons referred to the earlier loss to East and said, “It was kind of the same scenario. They brought Hatley in down there (Granite Quarry), too, and he shut us out. This time, it was tied. Ben went up looking fastball and got the barrell of the bat on it.”

East had taken a 1-0 lead in the opening inning when Cal Hayes Jr. led off with a homer down the left-field line, his second of the season, off West starter Jared Barnette, who then got out of a bases-loaded jam caused by two West errors.

Drew Callicutt relieved Barnette in the second and pitched well enough into the sixth inning to keep his team in the game. Callicutt also delivered a big two-run single up the middle with two outs in the third inning to give his team a 3-1 lead.

“We haven’t played in a while, and we just came out ready to play. We’ve just been wanting to beat them,” said Callicutt, a left-handed hitter and pitcher.

“He (Sides) about messed me up,” Callicutt said of his two-run single. “I was looking for a fastball. It was a curve. I got out on my front foot, swung at it and just made contact and put it in play. ... This should be a big confidence builder. It should help us out a lot.”

Callicutt, who went 2-for-3, would have come to the plate in the final inning had Hampton not homered.

“I knew it when he hit it. It was a great feeling,” said Callicutt of the homer.

Opposing coach Jeff Safrit said, “It was pretty much the same story it’s been all year. The only reversal was, this time we didn’t win. We had plenty of opportunities. We’ve pretty much had opportunities all year. We seem to not really have anybody that wants to step up and give us a big two-out hit.”

East had eight hits, including the homer and two doubles by Hayes, who went 3-for-4 with three RBIs. The Mustangs left 10 runners on base.

“All of our games have been close. We just haven’t got a big hit,” said Safrit.

“Give them (West) a lot of credit,” he continued. “They got more confidence as the game went along offensively and defensively.”

As for Hampton’s homer, Safrit said, “He’s a big strong kid. I’m happy for him. I’ve know him a long time. I’ve know Rick and Gay (Ben’s parents) a long time. Ben’s been around here (at East) a lot with Darrell (Misenheimer) and Danny.”

Darrell Misenheimer, East’s track coach and assistant football coach, is Ben’s uncle.

“They(West) are as good as anybody in our league. They look to me like they wanted it a little bit more than we did,” said Safrit.

West will try to get two more victories tonight. The Falcons will finish a protested game with Harding at 7 p.m. at West, picking it up at 5-5 with two outs and nobody on with Harding batting in the bottom of the sixth. The regularly scheduled game will follow.