Rowan County shook off a disappointing loss the previous night and bounced back with an impressive 10-5 AmericanLegion baseball victory over Kannapolis at Newman Park here Thursday.

Rowan leads the best-of-five Area III championship series two games to one heading into Game 4 at 7:15 p.m. today at Kannapolis’ Veterans Field.

Coach Jim DeHart’s third-seeded Rowan club (27-11) found itself in somewhat of an underdog role in Game 3 against a ninth-seeded Kannapolis club (22-15) that had stunned Rowan at Kannapolis on Wednesday.

DeHart, whose team blew a 9-3 ninth-inning lead and lost 10-9 the night before, thought Rowan was the underdog because Kannapolis’ star right-hander, Bobby Helms, was on the mound.

“I don’t think there’s any question when you go up against Bobby, you’re going to be the underdog.I honestly believe that,” said the veteran Rowan coach.

Helms’ pitching was a big factor in Kannapolis’ defeating Lexington, Eastern Randolph and Mocksville-Davie to get to the area finals, but he gave up seven runs (four earned) in five innings against Rowan.

“It’s unfortunate for Bobby that he didn’t really have his good stuff tonight. (Daniel) Moore didn’t have his good stuff last night(Wednesday),” said DeHart.

CoachJoe Hubbard of Kannapolis said, “I don’t think he threw his best game tonight. I didn’t think he was really bad tonight. I think he may have got behind a couple of hitters, and they hit him hard.”

“Kannapolis is a good ballclub,” DeHart said. “The first of the year, I didn’t know whether they were or not, but I can see how they got around Eastern Randolph and those guys. They’re going to represent this area very well in the states.”

Both Rowan and Kannapolis have already clinched berths in the first state tournament to be held at Granite Falls July 28-Aug. 2.

While Kannapolis’ Helms may not have been as sharp as in most past games, Rowan’s two hurlers — starter Brandon Doby and reliever Julian Sides — were at or near their best.

“I’m real proud of Brandon. He hadn’t pitched that much lately. The guy got a base hit winning the game last night off of him, and that didn’t deter him a bit,” said DeHart.

Doby, the winner in relief with two shutout innings in Game 1, was the last of five pitchers for Rowan during Wednesday’s great ninth-inning rally by Kannapolis.

Doby worked 6 2/3 innings, allowing only five hits. All five runs he allowed were unearned because of four Rowan errors. The right-hander fanned a season-high nine batters.

“Sides came in and did quite a job,” said DeHart.

Sides, a starter in seven games, had been sidelined recently with mononucleosis, but the left-hander got medical clearance earlier in the day and relieved Doby in a crucial situation in the seventh, getting his first save of the season. He allowed one hit over 2 1/3 innings and got a big strikeout for the final out with two runners on in the seventh.

“I felt real good. My fastball, I was throwing it for location, and the curveball was breaking real good. I just felt real good to be out there,” said Sides. He added of the relief assignment, “It doesn’t bother me a bit. Pressure situations really don’t bother me. It kind of gets me pumped up a little bit more when I’m in there at the spur of the moment.”

Sides said he started feeling real tired about 10 days ago, then he developed a sore throat. A visit to the doctor resulted in the mono diagnosis.

“He (doctor) told me today that my(enlarged) spleen had gone down, that I could participate if I felt like I could. I had been feeling good the whole week, so I decided to see how it was.”

He’ll get another chance tonight. After throwing only 28 pitches, Sides is scheduled to start Game 4 with right-hander Nathan Woodburn backing him up.

Offensively, Cal Hayes Jr., Brian Hatley, Drew Davis and Woodburn had big games for Rowan, which had 10 hits off Helms and reliever Nick Cadolino.

Hayes went 4-for-5 with a double, three runs and two runs batted in. Hatley hit his second homer of the season and his first of the year at NewmanPark. Davis and Woodburn each had two hits.

“I just came out swinging the bat trying to get us some runs,” said Hayes, who wasn’t surprised Rowan got seven hits off Helms. “We’ve been swinging the bat pretty good the last couple of games. He throws the fastball and curveball, and I think we just hit it.”

He thought back to the loss at Kannapolis the previous night and said, “We should have won the game.... We just wanted to win this one. We knew we should be leading today, but it’s just more practice for us for the state.”

Hatley, whose only previous homer had been over a short left-field fence at King, hammered his first Newman Park home run about 350 feet.

“That’s probably one of the best balls I’ve hit in a while, probably the hardest ball I’ve hit inLegion ball besides that one I hit last year against Garner off the scoreboard,” said Hatley.

The fourth-year Rowan starter played a new position, first base, for the second straight game.He’s started most of the season at third and played second some. Of course, he’s also 8-0 as a pitcher.

“I like it (first base) a lot.It’s easy. It’s a whole lot easier than third base,” said Hatley.

Kannapolis’ Hubbard, whose team trailed both Lexington and Mocksville two games to one in earlier playoff series, thought his team may have gotten too high after the ninth-inning rally the night before.

“Rowan played well tonight and did the things they had to do to win the game. I felt like we came out flat,” said Hubbard. “Not taking anything against Rowan’s performance, but maybe the emotional win we had last night .... We just came out flat and got ourselves behind. Every time we seemed to get back in it, we just did not seem to get the big hit that could get us right back in the door.”

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NOTES: Hubbard said his most likely starting pitcher tonight would be Adam Russell, John Goodman or Ryan Craft. ... Relief pitcher Cadolino was the only Kannapolis hitter with two RBIs. ... Doby hit Chris Florence, Nate Amerson and Chad Tuttle with pitches, but walked only one batter. ... Davis and Brad Canipe had doubles for Rowan.