GRANITE FALLS — All’s well in Caldwell: AmericanLegion state champions for 2000.
A tired Rowan County team’s bid for the program’s sixth state championship ended with a 7-3 loss to another perennial power, Caldwell County Post 29, here Wednesday evening.
Coach Jim DeHart’s team, which needed to win four games the final two days to come out of the losers bracket and win the title, succumbed to defensive problems and the pitching of veteran right-hander Marc Church (10-1), who went the distance on the mound.
Rowan actually out-hit Caldwell 9-4, but Church was especially sharp with men on base. The rising sophomore on the Wingate University team got the final out of an inning six times on either a strikeout or infield grounder, six of those coming with runners on base. He left seven Rowan runners stranded over the first six innings, then was unhittable down the stretch.
“I’m not taking anything away from Marc Church, because he pitched a great game, but we had our chances to get to him. We’re tired; we really are. Three games in less than 24 hours: We’re tired,” said DeHart.
Rowan, after losing to Cherryville 8-6 in the winners bracket on Sunday night, had to beat Wilmington on Monday and both Kannapolis and Cherryville on Tuesday to reach the finals. Even if Rowan had won yesterday, it would have had to defeat Caldwell again Wednesday night for the championship of the double-elimination tournament.
Rowan, with right-hander Nate Woodburn on the mound, took a 3-1 lead after three innings. Woodburn, despite control problems, had a no-hitter going into the fifth.
That inning, however, is when Rowan’s defense started to collapse behind Woodburn and, in the sixth inning, left-hander Julian Sides. Four errors led to five unearned runs, two coming after a 26-minute rain delay in the sixth.
“At the start of the game we had some energy and got up 3-1,” said DeHart. “Then we made a couple of mistakes, and it showed. That’s tiredness mistakes, because the guys that made them don’t normally make those. That fateful inning (sixth), we just couldn’t hold onto the ball.”
Rowan made three errors in that inning, reminding DeHart that there have been other recent playoff games in which a normally solid defense collapsed.
“I don’t understand it. It seems like it’s not the same person each time. It’s just one, then all of a sudden, we’ll have a bevy of them. We just couldn’t throw the ball,” said DeHart. “The ball was wet, I’ll have to give the team that. But they (Caldwell) threw the ball when it was wet, so that’s no excuse.”
Rowan not only finished second or better in the state for the 10th time, but posted a 32-13 mark, the eighth 30-win season for DeHart in 10 years.
DeHart, who announced his retirement from coaching — effective at the end of the season — back in June, had an impressive 368-120-1 record during his 11 years at the Rowan helm. His teams won the 1993 state title and the 1996 Southeastern Regional championship, and the 1996 team went on to finish fourth in the nation.
“We’re happy, and I’m proud of these guys. They did a good job. You have to give Caldwell County (35-8) a lot of credit. They were fresh, they were ready to play and they beat us, no question about it,” said the veteran Rowan coach.
Church pitched well, but he was definitely the man in charge after his team got him three runs and a 6-3 lead in the sixth inning. He struck out three of the six batters he faced while retiring the side in order in the seventh and eighth innings. He allowed only a walk in the ninth.
“I really felt confident coming into the game today that we could beat these guys,” said Church. “They’re a good team. They hit the ball good, and they’re an awesome team. But I just felt that our team wasn’t going to step down anymore. We were going to take it and bring the trophy home for us.”
The trophy actually didn’t have far to go, since Caldwell (35-8) was the host team. Coach Gary Hamby’s Area IV runners-up defeated Wilmington, Kannapolis and big rival Cherryville to get to the championship game.
Church gave up five hits and three earned runs while falling behind 3-1 in the first three innings.
“I wasn’t locating well, wasn’t getting my stuff over the plate where I wanted it. They were hitting the ball hard off of me. I just told myself, ‘If I just can make it to the sixth inning and not let them score any more runs, I’d be all right.’ Then we stepped it up and started to hit the ball hard. I knew my team was going to stand behind me even more. They helped me out a lot of took all the pressure off me,” said Church, who also went nine innings in a first-round win over Wilmington and worked the final two-thirds of an inning in Caldwell’s 8-4 win over Cherryville in Monday night’s winners bracket finals.
Church, who was 3-2 with four saves while pitching 60 innings for Wingate last spring, thought his experience was important in the state championship game.
“College ball doesn’t really help you out that much physically, but it helps you out so much mentally — when to throw, where to throw it, all that good stuff. I wanted to come back this year and just try to bring home one state title, because we’ve been so close the last two years,” said Church.
Church and Rowan’s Brian Hatley shared the Most Valuable Player award, decided on by the state and area commissioners. Hatley went 11-for-26 with two homers and 11 runs batted in during six games. He also ended a four-year career with a Rowan club record 214 hits.
Caldwell, which won other state titles in 1986, 1990 and 1991, had lost out to strong Cherryville teams in the Western North Carolina finals the previous three years.
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