KANNAPOLIS — Simply put, Kannapolis gave Mocksville Helms.

Kannapolis right-hander Bobby Helms beat the world at Veterans Field on Friday night. He beat fatigue, beat Mother Nature and beat Mocksville 10-6 in a heart-pounding performance that had fans on both sides of Veterans Field standing open-mouthed in admiration.

Helms evened the roller-coaster, best-of-five Area III semifinal series at two games apiece. A decisive Game 5 will be played tonight at Rich Park in Mocksville with a trip to the state tournament riding on the outcome.

After his team was battered by 10 runs Thursday in Mocksville, Kannapolis coach Joe Hubbard said he wasn’t sure if Helms, who had thrown 112 pitches in Tuesday’s opener, would be able to hurl at all last night. Hubbard said it would be a game-time decision.

Helms asked for the ball. Just as everyone knew he would.

“We hoped Bobby could give us five innings,” said Hubbard. “Best case was seven.”

But Helms fooled his coach. He gave him all nine.

In the previous two games, Mocksville-Kannapolis had been an ugly mismatch. It had been Lakers vs. Clippers; Mark McGwire vs. Marky Mark; George Herman Ruth vs. PeeWee Herman; Rocky Balboa vs. Rocky the Flying Squirrel. Take your pick.

But things started to change right from the get-go in Game 4 when Helms sauntered to the mound and dispatched Mocksville 1-2-3 in the top of the first.

Then his teammates got two in the bottom half on Zach Gurley’s clutch single. Gurley, Kannapolis’ No. 3 hitter had been silent all series. His hit was a huge lift for the home team.

“Zach’s been struggling,” said Hubbard. “I told him it was mostly between his ears. His hit was big because it put us ahead in the series really for the first time other than in the ninth inning of the first game.”

Helms was bringing it in the early innings, sailing along in sharp contrast to his Game 1 start in which he had “overheated” and lasted only five innings.

“Ijust hit my spots mostly,” said Helms. “You have to do that against Mocksville. If you don’t, they’ll mash it and they’ll pound it. They’ll bomb you.”

But this was a night when most of the mashing was done by Kannapolis. Hubbard’s team had only 14 hits in the previous three games. It got 11 in this one, eight of them off Mocksville starter Travis Allen.

“We hit the ball tonight finally,” said Hubbard, “and we made the plays behind Bobby.”

Kannapolis was also getting the breaks it hadn’t gotten lately. Every Mocksville line drive whistled foul or into a waiting glove.

Gurley scored on a passed ball in the third to make it 3-0. Then he was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded in the fourth for a 4-0 lead. In the fifth, Dusty Carmichael, returning after two days of college orientation, drove a ball out of sight for a two-run homer. Even Carmichael, who didn’t move from the batters box for nearly 10 seconds, seemed stunned by the enormity of his blast. Now it was 6-1.

Asked if Carmichael (who has been in town for Kannapolis’ two wins and absent for the two losses) meant 20 runs or so to the team, Helms laughed. “I don’t know about that,” he said. “But it was good to have him back. We missed him.”

Mocksville averages better than 10 runs per game, but it’s only tally in the first six innings came on Zach Greene’s fifth-inning sac fly. Through six, Helms was superb, allowing just two hits.

But then Mother Nature made it exciting, as lightning forced a delay in the action prior to the seventh.

Helms came back tight when play resumed. Chris Brake and Kevin Shuping ripped hits. Zach Greene laced a drive that sliced around Carmichael in left and suddenly it was 6-3. Skipp Crider’s groundout made it 6-4 and Hubbard and assistant Empsy Thompson were biting their nails. Thompson visited the mound. Helms shook his head, said he was fine, as cries of “Come on, Woo” shook the grandstand.

“My nickname,” shrugged Helms. “My dad put it on me and it stuck.”

But did “Woo” have anything left?

“One thing about Bobby, he’ll be honest with you,” said Hubbard. “If he he’s hurting he’ll tell you. He said he was OK.”

In the last of the eighth, it was still a 6-4 game. That’s when Kannapolis loaded the bases with none out against Mocksville reliever Andrew Daywalt, who had been brilliant to that point. Daywalt nearly escaped. He struck out Gurley, then got Chad Tuttle to hit into a force at the plate. But with two outs, Helms took matters into his own hands, driving a two-run single over shortstop to make it 8-4. Then Ryan Craft doubled in two more runs and Helms had a 10-4 cushion.

“Obviously, that was big,” said Mocksville coach Mike Lovelace. “I still felt good about our chances when it was 6-4.”

Helms yielded a two-run double to Ridenhour in the ninth, but retired Steve LeFaivre on a towering fly to right to end the game.

“Bobby beat a scary team,” said Hubbard.

“Hats off to Helms,” echoed Lovelace. “He just threw great, a lot better than he did in the first game. He just stayed ahead and did what he had to do out there.”

As all the Kannapolis guys did.

But can they do it one more time? There’s no question Mocksville has a decided advantage on the mound tonight as Lovelace will have ace Skipp Crider (8-2) ready to go.

“People will see a different Mocksville team,” promised Lovelace. “You can bet on that. We’ll have our best on the mound and we won’t be flat like we were tonight.”

Hubbard will counter Crider with “staff.”

“We’ll pitch everybody we have,” said Hubbard.

Everybody that is, except Helms. He’s already done everything one kid can do.