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KING — It took Brian Hatley and Rowan County more than an hour to finish a 25-hour AmericanLegion baseball game here Thursday night.
Rowan outscored King 17-6 in an Area III quarterfinal playoff game that started Wednesday night before being suspended by rain. Rowan returned to King last night with a 10-0 lead in the fourth inning and went on to win by the 10-run rule in seven innings.
“It was the longest and shortest game I think I ever played,” said Hatley, who went the distance on the mound, belted his first homer of the season and drove in five runs.
Rowan (21-9) took a two-games-to-none lead over King (18-12) in the best-of-five series that continues at 7:15 p.m. today at Newman Park.
Hatley had retired all nine batters he faced on a rainy Wednesday night. He lost his perfect game in the fourth, when right fielder NickLefko dropped a fly ball for an error, then lost his no-hitter in the fifth, when King scored five times on five hits.
“I thought Brian did real well coming back,” said coach Jim DeHart. “He showed no signs of being off except maybe that one inning. He wasn’t tired, he told me. He only threw 111 pitches for the two nights, so that’s great.”
“It (his right arm) was a little sore and a little tight. It loosened up a little bit there toward the end,” said
Hatley, who improved to 7-0 for the season with two saves. “I had to throw a bunch of fastballs. ... They were hitting the curveball. I couldn’t throw it as hard tonight.”
He finished the two nights with a seven-hitter, allowing one walk and striking out eight. All six King runs were earned.
“We came out today and just continued what we did yesterday. We kept hitting the ball great, one through nine. Everybody’s just so pumped up wanting to win so bad. We’re coming together so great right now. Everybody’s playing as a team, not just one person,” said
Hatley.
Rowan had 15 hits off three King hurlers, including a 4-for-5 performance by Cal Hayes Jr., a 3-for-3 outing by Nathan Woodburn and a 3-for-4 showing by Hatley. Brad Canipe added two hits.
Rowan scored twice in the top of the fourth after play resumed, giving the visitors a 12-0 lead and a shot at winning by the 10-run rule. King, however, bounced back with the five runs in the fifth to pull within 12-5.
When Rowan’s first two batters made outs in the top of the seventh, it appeared the game might go eight or nine innings. Then Hayes drilled a single up the middle. Woodburn responded with a long triple over center fielder Josh Shelton’s head, putting Rowan up by 10 at 15-5 and inspiring Hatley, who knew he was three outs away from ending it.
“When Nate got that triple, he got me kind of hyped. Cal Hayes’ dad (Cal Sr.) in the stands said, ‘All right Hatley, show me what you’ve got. Woody showed me what he had.’ I had to show a little something,” exclaimed Hatley.
He hammered a pitch from right-hander David Stroup over the short right field fence about 310 feet away to make it 17-5.
“I was thinking home run on that one a little bit. I couldn’t help it,” said Hatley, who hit three home runs last season. “The pitcher:I knew he was getting a little tired and getting the ball up a little bit. I waited on a fastball and hit it as hard as I could.”
Ben Booth led off the bottom of the seventh with a long home run to center field, but Hatley retired three of the next four batters to end the contest.
“We came up here with the idea to not lose our concentration that we had last night,” said DeHart. “The 10-run rule was part of our strategy. Most importantly was to try to tack some runs on. We outscored them today. That was important.”
Now Rowan goes for a sweep with southpaw Julian Sides (3-2) expected to pitch against King right-hander Eric Hendrix (5-0) tonight.
“We just want to beat these boys,” said Hatley. “It doesn’t matter how we beat them — seven innings, nine innings, 10 innings. We just want to get this next win out of the way and try to finish them off tomorrow.”
DeHart is guarding against complacency with the team needing to win only once in a possible three games to win the series.
“I won’t let them be complacent. This is playoff time. We don’t get complacent. We did in the regular season once or twice. Playoff time: These guys kind of go into another gear. That’s pleasing.”
Rowan, a 7-3 winner in Game 1 at Newman Park on Tuesday, has outscored King 24-9. Counting a three-game sweep of Mooresville, Rowan is 5-0 in the playoffs, outscoring the opposition 55-21.
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NOTES: The Rowan-King winner will advance to next week’s semifinal round against the Concord-Watauga County winner. That series is deadlocked at one game apiece after Watauga won 9-6 in Boone last night. ... “My information is that it’s supposed to start Monday,” said DeHart of the semifinals. “My information also is that they’ve changed it to four out of seven.” The semifinals were originally scheduled to be best-of-five with the finals being best-of-seven the following week. ... Booth, Eddy Forrest and Catawba College-bound Jeff Boyles each drove in two runs for King. ... King had won 12 straight games prior to meeting Rowan.
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