KING — Rowan County’s American Legion baseball team
appears to be in complete charge in its Area III
quarterfinal playoff series with King, but coach Jim DeHart
wants his team to stay focused.
Rowan holds a
10-0 lead in the top of the fourth inning in a
rain-suspended Game 2 that will be completed at 7:15 p.m.
today at Roy S. Barr Memorial Park. Rowan won the opener of
the best-of-five series 7-3 at Newman Park on Tuesday.
Rowan, 20-9
for the season, not only scored 10 runs against two King
pitchers, but Rowan right-hander Brian Hatley has been
perfect so far on the mound, retiring all nine batters
he’s faced.
“We like
it,” said DeHart of his team’s position. “But we’ve
got to be careful, as usual. We’ve got to go over there
with the right attitude.”
DeHart said
Hatley (6-0 with two saves) would be on the mound again
tonight.
“He only
threw 39 pitches and faced only nine batters,” said the
Rowan coach.
Hatley struck
out three batters, two on called third strikes, got three
outs on infield grounders and got three more on fly balls.
Meanwhile,
Rowan took advantage of eight walks by hard-throwing
left-handed King starter Jason Duncan, who also allowed four
hits before being relieved by right-hander Andrew Larrimore
after 2 1/3 innings.
Cal Hayes Jr.
led Rowan’s seven-hit attack by going 3-for-3 with three
runs batted in. Brad Canipe was 2-for-3.
Drew Davis
drove in two runs with a bases-loaded walk and by reaching
on an infield error. Hayes, Nathan Woodburn, Brett Peiffer,
Nick Lefko and Shawn Trosper each had an RBI.
Rowan scored
one run in the opening inning without a hit, then chased
Duncan during a seven-run third inning. The visitors had
scored twice in the top of the fourth on Hayes’ one-out
single to left before the game was halted by a steady rain.
Game 3 will
now be played at Newman Park on Friday night, when
left-hander Julian Sides (3-2) will be on the mound for
Rowan, probably against right-hander Eric Hendrix (5-0) of
King.
A fourth
game, if necessary, would be played at King on Saturday
night, followed by a fifth game, if necessary, at Newman
Park on Sunday night.
King (18-11)
was riding a 12-game winning streak into the series with
Rowan after sweeping three second-round contests from Wilkes
County.
The
Rowan-King winner will advance to the best-of-five semifinal
round against the Concord-Watauga County winner. Concord
leads that series 1-0. | 
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