Coach Jim DeHart’s Rowan club banged out a season-high 22 hits — seven for extra bases — while downing Mooresville 18-5 at Mooresville High School in the second round of the Area III American Legion baseball playoffs.

Rowan, which leads the best-of-five series two games to none, will be going after the clincher at 7:15 p.m. today at Newman Park.

Rowan had played only one game (7-2 victory over Mooresville on Monday) in the previous 10 days, but it didn’t seem to matter last night. Brett Peiffer led the way at the plate by going 4-for-5 with four runs batted in, and winning pitcher Brian Hatley, Nick Lefko, Cal Hayes Jr., Nathan Woodburn, Brad Canipe and Drew Davis each had a multiple hit night.

“It’s tough to come back after a layoff like that,” said Peiffer, who reached base safely his first six at-bats. “We played well the first game of the series and, after the three rainouts, it’s hard to come back and hit the ball like we’ve been hitting seeing a lot of pitches.”

Rowan, after completing its regular season on June 19, had to wait a week to open the playoffs, then rain washed out Game 2 of the current series three straight nights.

“ I was surprised (with the team’s hitting). To come back like that after three games that we didn’t play, it’s really tough to see the ball again. But we managed to bat around the first two innings and score 10 runs.
Everything fell for us, fortunately,” said Peiffer.

Rowan sent nine batters to the plate in the first inning, then 12 more in the second inning while jumping out front 10-0. Mooresville, however, scored five runs in the second and third innings off Hatley to keep it reasonably close for a few innings.

“Brian wasn’t as sharp as he was when he got to the middle of the game, but that 10 runs really helped him out. It just meant that their five runs didn’t mean a whole lot,” said Peiffer.

Hatley shook off those five runs (four earned) and five hits in those early innings to pitch no-hit ball from the fourth through the eighth innings. He gave up one more hit in the ninth, finishing with a six-hitter.

“They got to me and started hitting me a little bit right there,” said Hatley of the second and third innings. “I kept getting the ball up and getting a little frustrated with myself. I talked to the coaches, and the coaches calmed me down a little bit. I went out there and pitched a lot better.”

Hatley is now 6-0 with two saves.

“I didn’t have my best staff tonight, but I mixed stuff up a whole lot more and tried to keep them guessing,” said Hatley. “I think I got that 10-0 lead and I kind of didn’t really concentrate as much and went out there thinking they were going to roll over and die, and they didn’t. They never roll over and die, and they didn’t tonight. They came back and hit the ball good. Finally, I concentrated a little bit more and started getting them out.”

DeHart, whose club is now 18-9 overall, said of the 22-hit attack, “We’ve been pretty focused the last couple of days. Although we didn’t get to play, we took BP (batting practice) at home. The kids just want to play. It surprised me, but hitting is contagious.”

He thought both Hatley and Mooresville starter Clark Benfield were hurt by a tight strike zone.

“He (Benfield) wasn’t getting the calls behind the plate like he normally should have. Their starter was throwing some strikes, we thought. Then Brian goes out there after we’ve already scored pretty much, and he starts doing the same thing to Brian — a very tight strike zone,” said DeHart.

Marion Pitts of Davie County was the home plate umpire.

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NOTES: Hatley, Lefko, Hayes and Woodburn each had three hits, while Davis and Canipe had two apiece. ... Canipe hit his third homer of the season with Lefko on base in the fifth. ... Lefko had two doubles, while Hatley, Davis and Canipe each had one. ... Josh Haire had two hits for Mooresville, which is 14-14 overall. ... The Rowan-Mooresville winner will take on the King-Wilkes County winner in the best-of-five third round. King took a 1-0 lead in that series last night with a 16-0 romp at Wilkes. King hosts Wilkes in a doubleheader today.