GRANITE FALLS — The southpaws from the west sent Wilmington back east here Monday afternoon.

Left-handers Julian Sides and Daniel Moore were too much for Wilmington Post 10 in the North Carolina American Legion Baseball State Championship Tournament as Rowan County won a 5-4 thriller.

Starter and winner Sides, now 5-3, was bothered some by a sore back, but allowed only five hits and three walks while striking out eight batters. Only one of the four runs he yielded was earned.

Moore, who had worked the first five innings in Saturday’s 8-6 win over North Raleigh, got his first save, striking out the last five batters.

The victory kept Rowan (30-12) alive in the losers bracket of the double-elimination tourney and ended Wilmington’s season at 32-5. It also set up a big rematch with Area III rival Kannapolis at 4 p.m. today.

Kannapolis (24-18) eliminated Whiteville 2-1 in an earlier Monday contest.

The Rowan-Kannapolis winner will have to play twice today, meeting Cherryville at 7 p.m. in the losers bracket finals. Host team Caldwell County beat Cherryville 8-4 last night in a battle of big rivals in the winners bracket.

Rowan, which beat Kannapolis three games to one for the Area III title, will be facing the Towel City team for the seventh time this season. Rowan won five of the first six meetings.

“We’re fortunate we won five out of six, but that doesn’t mean a thing coming into tomorrow,” said coach Jim DeHart of Rowan. “It’s going to be who remembers the most about each other, whether (Brandon) Doby remembers more about Kannapolis or whoever they pitch remembers more about us,” said DeHart.

The Kannapolis team, after the win over Whiteville, stayed around pulling for Rowan.

“We were pulling for Rowan. They’ve been pulling for us,” said coach Joe Hubbard. “I think we’re going to have a lot of fun out there. I hope we come out on top. Both of us would rather not be in the losers bracket, but we are, so we’ve got to make the best of it. I’m looking forward to it.”

Rowan’s Brian Hatley, who drove in the game’s first two runs with a bases-loaded double in the third inning, is ready for his friendly rivals from Kannapolis.

“It’s going to be a good ballgame. I hate to play them, because I want to see them win and I want to see us win it so bad. I wish it was somebody else. We’re going to have to play them. I hope we beat them. I hate to say that, staying in the hotel with them and everything, talking to them all week and rooting them on,” said the Rowan pitcher-infielder.

Sides started for the first time in 18 days. He was sidelined for awhile with mononucleosis, then got saves in the last two games of the Kannapolis series.

“I was throwing good there at the beginning. I was placing my fastball real well and my curveball was breaking good. I just felt comfortable being out there and everything,” said Sides.

“About the second or third inning, I got a strain where I had hurt my latissimus dorsi muscle. It continually got worse as the innings went on. I had to get the trainer to help me stretch it out a little bit,” Sides said. “I just tried to go out there and do my best. I wanted us to be able to finish this game off so we could win and move on.”

The left-hander knew, when his back started bothering him, that he wouldn’t be pitching nine innings.

“I was just hoping to get at least seven or eight and pull through without letting them score a whole lot of runs,” said Sides.

“He gave us everything he had,” said DeHart. “I think he was glad for me to go out there and get him. ... This was his best quality start by far against a good quality team.”

Moore relieved Sides with one out in the eighth after Ross Cook doubled and Milton Redd reached on a throwing error by second baseman Nate Woodburn.

Two more errors by Woodburn followed, pulling Wilmington within 5-4 and leaving runners at second and third.

Moore then showed why he’s been signed by the University of North Carolina, striking out the next two batters to get out of the jam and finishing the game by striking out the side in the ninth.

“I realized yesterday that my arm wasn’t that sore and that I would probably be able to come back and throw a couple of innings today,” said Moore. “I told him (DeHart) that if he needed me in a late-inning situation that I could come in and do it. He had the confidence to bring me in that last couple innings, and we got the job done.”

Moore isn’t sure how much more he’ll be able to pitch in the tourney.

“I’m not going to do anything to hurt myself down here. It’s all in how I feel,” explained the lanky left-hander. “If I get out here tomorrow and my arm feels good, then I’ll be ready to go again. If it doesn’t, they’ll have to pull through without me. I think we can do it either way, though.”

While Sides and Moore starred on the mound, Rowan’s biggest hits came from Brian Hatley and Drew Davis, who were each 2-for-4.

Hatley’s bases-loaded double down the left field line gave Rowan an early 2-0 lead in the third. Rowan added another run that inning after Wilmington’s second error of the game.

With Rowan clinging to a 3-2 lead in the top of the eighth, Woodburn walked with one out and stole second. Hatley followed with a single to left, moving Woodburn to third. When Hatley broke for second, pitcher Matt Hamm balked, sending Woodburn home.

One out later, it was Davis’ turn to drive in what proved to be the winning run. He singled to center to score Hatley from second and put Rowan up 5-2.

“I knew I had to make something happen,” said Davis. “He gave me a fastball and I hit it back up the middle.”

Hamm had retired 14 straight Rowan batters before walking Woodburn in the eighth.

“He did a good job keeping us off-balance,” said Davis. “He had a good changeup and an occasional curveball.”

Hatley said Hamm’s breaking pitches gave him trouble on his first two at-bats. Hatley struck out swinging in the first inning.

“He fooled me (in the third inning). I was looking fastball, and I jumped out at the curveball. Then he threw me two fastballs. I was pretty much just saying, ‘Stay back and wait on the curveball. Luckily, he threw it in there and threw it for a strike. I was able to hit it down the line and score two runs, which turned out to be a big two runs,” said Hatley.

Wilmington’s Hamm belted a leadoff home run in the third inning. No player had two hits for Post 10, which won its last two state titles in 1994-95.