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The game- and series-ending play Friday night said it all.
Ground ball on the infield, error, Rowan County scores to cap an easy 11-1 win in the bottom of the seventh inning.
King entered its third-round American Legion baseball playoff series on a 12-game winning streak. Ronnie Mendenhall’s team left Newman Park having lost three straight to Rowan by a combined score of 35-10.
“I don’t know what to say, ”said Mendenhall, as sixth-seeded King ended its season at 18-13. “We hit Rowan when they were playing their very best.”
On Friday night, crafty left-hander Julian Sides threw his very best and every player in the Rowan lineup had a hit. The only suspense came in the seventh: Could Rowan (22-9) end it early, or would a full nine innings be required?
Daniel Moore opened the frame with a single, scampered to second on a wild pitch and took off for third on Cal Hayes Jr.’s grounder to short. Justin Masencup missed it, and Moore scored on King’s third fatal error of the evening.
King’s generosity in the field wasn’t even necessary. Rowan’s offense lit up starting pitcher Josh Shelton for five earned runs in the second inning.
With runners on first and second, Tad Ogg stepped to the plate with the King infield playing in at the corners for a bunt. His line drive missed all of them en route to the wall in left-center, and Rowan had a 1-0 lead.
Cal Hayes Jr. followed with a double to the same spot to make it 3-0. Nate Woodburn struck out swinging on a pitch in the dirt, but allowed Hayes to reach third by running hard on the dropped third strike. Two pitches later, Hayes darted home on another wild pitch for a 4-0 lead. The fifth run came off another wild pitch on a strikeout.
“We brought the bats out, and they came in not really wanting to play, being down 2-0,”Hayes said.
King certainly didn’t want to continue after a disastrous third inning. Reliever Eric Hendrix got two outs on six pitches, then induced Moore into a weak popup to second base. Ben Booth settled under it, got both hands up and ready — and squeezed the easy out right out of his glove.
Hayes got nicked by a pitch and Woodburn singled to right field to score Moore. Eddy Forrest’s misplay on the pickup let Hayes come home,
and Woodburn scored on Hatley’s infield single to make it 8-1.
Despite all the run support, Sides knew he still had a mission.
“Coach (Jim DeHart) told me to concentrate because this team has a tendency to rally in the late innings,
”Sides said. “We all wanted to go home early and do some other stuff tonight.”
Sides kept up his end of the deal. He surrendered six hits to three King batters and breezed past the rest of the lineup. After giving up King’s lone run in the third inning, he got out of trouble in the fourth with a double play. The last seven King batters went down in order.
“Julian pitched a great game,” DeHart said. “Following Daniel and Hatley (in Games 1 and 2), we thought they’d have a tough adjustment.”
Rowan stretched its lead to nine runs in the bottom of the sixth. Hatley, who finished 3-for-3, led off with a single and scored on Nick Lefko’s double. Erik Mowery sent a grounder to deep second and appeared to beat the throw to the bag, but he had to settle for the RBI groundout and 10-1 advantage.
All that remained was for the last run to come home. And even though King shot itself in the foot one final time on the season, DeHart knew his team fired on all cylinders to dominate the way it did.
“We beat an excellent ball club, ”DeHart said. “They came in here on a 12-game winning streak and we absolutely shut them down.”
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NOTES: In addition to every Rowan player getting a hit, all but one scored a run. Brett Peiffer had to settle for a 2-for-4 night. … Rowan didn’t catch the error bug. The only miscue DeHart’s team committed came on a high infield pop in the fourth inning that fell between catcher Drew Davis, Ogg and Sides. The runner was erased on a double play. … Rowan gets the winner of the Concord-Watauga (Watauga leads 2-1) series. That series is scheduled to start Tuesday.
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