KANNAPOLIS — Jim DeHart stalked out to the pitching mound five times in the ninth inning Wednesday night.
Kannapolis scored so many runs in its last at-bat that Rowan County’s manager even conferred with the umpires and official scorekeeper to make sure the scoreboard was right.
It was.
But not for long.
After Kannapolis tallied its seventh run in the bottom of the ninth inning to pull out a stunning 10-9 victory at Veterans Field, the scoreboard still read 9-9 as the joyous Kannapolis players ran onto the field and the shocked Rowan squad slinked toward the dugout and disappeared into the night.
Another miraculous postseason finish left Kannapolis (22-14) and Rowan (26-11) tied 1-1 in their American Legion Area III championship with Game 3 set for tonight at Newman Park.
And the collapse of monumental proportions left DeHart fuming.
“We could have given up five solo home runs and it’s still a 9-8 game!” DeHart exclaimed. “Why the hell are you going after the corners (of the plate)?
“I can’t stand people walking people. People want to pitch and we put them out there and they don’t throw strikes.”
Four Rowan pitchers threw in the ninth after starter Daniel Moore left with a 9-3 lead. The ace left-hander had thrown 144 pitches through eight innings and also waited out three rain delays totalling 73 minutes.
Even though Kannapolis advanced to the finals after amazing four- and five-run ninth innings against Mocksville in the semis, Rowan and its fans felt safe leading by six with only three outs to go.
Spencer Steedley, 5-1 in the regular season, started the ninth against Dusty Carmichael. Rowan shortstop Cal Hayes Jr. made a great diving play to snare Carmichael’s liner for the first — and only — out.
Ryan Craft worked Steedley for a 3-2 walk and pinch-hitter Tyson Fink sent a single to left field that Nate Woodburn misplayed on the wet grass, allowing Craft to score and make it 9-4.
Steve Swann, batting ninth, worked the count full and got hit by a pitch. Chris Florence then walked to load the bases, which brought DeHart out for the second time in the inning and sent Steedley back to the dugout.
Bobby Parnell came into the game despite not pitching in 13 games. He quickly went to 3-0 on Matt Harris, who walked two pitches later to force in a run and make it 9-5.
“We were patient at the plate,” Kannapolis head coach Joe Hubbard said. “When you’re down by six runs you know you need a big inning.”
Parnell didn’t get a second chance. After the walk to Harris, out came DeHart and on came Woodburn, who ended the string of free passes. But Zack Gurley’s single to center field — this one misplayed by Brett Peiffer — cleared the bases and pulled Kannapolis within 9-8.
Woodburn walked Chad Tuttle and faced Bobby Helms with the tying run at second base. Helms, who homered earlier off Moore, sent a line drive up the middle just out of Hayes’ reach. Peiffer launched a throw home that arrived the same time Gurley did. The ball got away and Kannapolis had tied it.
“We’re just a total team,” Carmichael said. “We didn’t give up. Whether we’re down five runs or 10 runs, we keep coming back.”
Carmichael had to wait for his second at-bat of the inning. DeHart called on Brandon Doby to pitch, and while making the switch, questioned if the score was 9-8 or 9-9.
It was tied, until Carmichael sent the first pitch he saw shooting up the middle at the drawn-in infield. The ball just glanced off Hayes’ glove and into left field, setting off a wild celebration for the players and home fans who weathered the delays and four-plus hours of baseball.
Rain and lightning nearly washed out a Rowan rally and five-inning win for Kannapolis.
Moore, after three days of freshman orientation at North Carolina, didn’t look like an Atlantic Coast Conference pitcher in the early going. He struggled with his control, throwing 65 pitches in the first three innings. After Helms’ homer in the second, Carmichael walked and scored on a Craft double to tie the score at 2-all. A pair of walks and a wild pitch in the third helped Kannapolis take a 3-2 lead.
Rowan’s offense couldn’t hit starter Justin Bonds for more than a run at a time. Hayes walked and scored in the first and Nick Lefko walked and scored in the second after a Ben Hampton single. But Bonds retired eight of the next nine batters he faced, and Kannapolis still led 3-2 after five completed innings.
In the top of the sixth, Peiffer launched a two-run homer to put Rowan up 4-3 and Hampton walked to make it 5-3 when lightning surrounded the area and forced a 35-minute delay.
Kannapolis fans were rooting for a rainout so the score could have reverted back to the last completed inning — the fifth — for a 3-2 win. Rowan fans waited anxiously for the players to warm up and hit the field again.
When play resumed, Rowan scored three more times to make it 8-3. In the bottom of the sixth, Moore gave up a walk and double to Tuttle, but a long, perfect relay from Peiffer to Hayes to Brad Canipe nailed Gurley at the plate. The next two outs came on Ks, giving Rowan the official lead.
Another rain delay of 14 minutes stopped play in the seventh, but Moore came back to retire the side in order, as did Kannapolis reliever Adam Russell. It started pouring again in the eighth inning, when Hampton’s double made it 9-3.
At that point, the players and fans were so numbed by the delays that Kannapolis didn’t even know which batter to send up in its half of the eighth.
“After the second rain delay, I think we lost our focus,” said Hubbard, who walked the infield to check on some potential game-ending puddles after the second delay. “It was a situation where we had a couple of spots out there. If we had had another big rain like that I think we would have had some problems.”
Instead, the rain held off, and all the problems belonged to Rowan.
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