Rowan County, bidding for its sixth North Carolina title, opens play Saturday night in the first state tournament at Granite Falls.

Coach Jim DeHart’s Area III championship club, 28-11 for the season, will meet the Whiteville-Hickory winner at 7 p.m. on the second day of the tournament.

Area III commissioner Gaither Keener said yesterday that Rowan did not receive a bye, but Rowan is apparently the only team that is not playing on Friday, the first day of the nine-team, double-elimination tourney.

Whiteville, the 1996 state champion, lost three straight games to Wilmington in the Area II championship series. Hickory won a play-in game over Mathews to determine one of Area IV’s berths in the tournament.

Hickory takes the host team spot in the bracket, since Caldwell County, the actual host team, will be either the No. 1 or 2 seed from Area IV. Cherryville led Caldwell County two games to one going into Game 4 at Cherryville last night.

The No. 1 seeds from their respective areas are Wayne County, which swept North Raleigh in Area I), Wilmington (II), Rowan (III) and either Cherryville or Caldwell (IV). No. 1 seeds are not expected to meet in the opening round.

Although the Post has yet to receive a copy of the tournament bracket, it appears Whiteville and Hickory will meet at 10 a.m. Friday.

Kannapolis (22-16), which lost to Rowan three games to one in Area IV, will face Wayne County at 1 p.m. Friday.

The Area IV champion will probably face North Raleigh. The Area IV runner-up is expected to meet Wilmington. Caldwell, playing at home, would probably play in the 7 o’clock game.

The tournament is scheduled to wind up on Aug. 2.

n

LONG LAYOFF: Rowan, after outlasting Kannapolis 16-14 in Game 4 of the Area III series Friday night, will have a lot of rest before meeting either Whiteville or Hickory.

“We’d rather play, of course,” said DeHart. “It will be eight days before we play again after our last game. We’ll just accept it and go on and play it. It does give me an opportunity to go scout Hickory and Whiteville. I don’t know a thing about either one of them. I know Wilmington beat Whiteville three games to none. Of course, we played Wilmington,” said DeHart.

Wilmington Post 10, an eight-time state champion, defeated Rowan 8-4 on June 3 in Wilmington. DeHart didn’t pitch either of his first three starters — Daniel Moore, Brian Hatley or Julian Sides — in that contest.

“I think Caldwell County playing at home is bound to be the favorite,” said DeHart. The Caldwell program has been strong the last 15 years. Caldwell won state titles in 1986, 1990 and 1991 and finished second in 1985 and 1987. “I felt like we were one of the favorites when we played the regionals here,” added DeHart, referring to 1996, when host team Rowan won the Southeastern Regional at Newman Park.

“Cherryville (four-time state champ) and Wilmington both are perennial powers. That makes them favorites also. We should be, too. We’ve been there every year. I would hope my guys think so, too,” said DeHart.

n

POWERFUL FIELD: Seven of the programs in the state tourney have won at least one state championship and eight have been in the state finals.

Wilmington leads the way with its eight state crowns, followed by Rowan (5), Kannapolis (4), Whiteville (4), Cherryville (4), Caldwell (3) and Hickory (1). North Raleigh has never won, but Raleigh won the first state title ever in 1928.

The field has accounted for 29 of the last 57 state champions and an amazing nine of the last 11 — Whiteville in 1989, Caldwell the next two years, Rowan in 1993, Wilmington the next two years, Whiteville in 1996 and Cherryville the next two years. Defending champion Garner was eliminated in the Area I playoffs.

n

PITCHING PLANS: Left-hander Moore (6-1) is scheduled to start Saturday for Rowan, but DeHart said his choice could change.

“We may change our mind before then and use him in relief in every game,” exclaimed DeHart. “Daniel and I have talked about that. It’s according to how the brackets look. daniel would be a great relief pitcher — get him to the seventh inning and let him take it. We’ve got a week to think about it.”

If Moore were to start Saturday and pitch most of the game, he probably would not be able to start again until the final day of the tournament the following Wednesday.

“We are not going to over-pitch him. It’s not the time to start doing that,” said DeHart.

Right-hander Hatley (8-0) is DeHart’s choice for Rowan’s second game, which would probably be played next Sunday. He hopes Hatley has recovered from a sore arm by that time.

“We think by the time we start to play, Hatley will be ready. I’m very concerned that he won’t be ready. Until we find a definite diagnosis, we won’t feel good about it. It looks like it’s in kind of a muscle in the elbow area,” said the Rowan coach.

Southpaw Julian Sides (4-3), who got saves in the final two games of the Area III series, would pitch if Hatley isn’t ready.

n

DEFENSIVE WOES: Rowan committed an uncharacteristic 16 errors in the four games with Kannapolis.

“I don’t think we played very well defensively, but a lot of that had to do with the field we were playing on at Kannapolis,” said DeHart. Rowan had six errors combined in the two games at Veterans Field.

“I think with this week of practice and a week of relaxing, we’ll iron out some of the wrinkles we have,” said DeHart. “I look back at the errors we made and I can’t explain it. It’s just one of those things.”

n

HOT BATS: Hitting wasn’t a problem for Rowan in the series with Kannapolis. DeHart’s club went 45-for-143 for a .315 average with four homers and 17 doubles.

“We have been more patient. We’ve taken a lot of walks (26 against Kannapolis) and hit the ball well,” said DeHart.

Drew Davis had Rowan’s best batting average against Kannapolis, going 8-for-15 for a .533 mark. Cal Hayes Jr., a sizzling 7-for-11 the last two nights, was 9-for-17 (.529).

Nathan Woodburn was Rowan’s only player with multiple hits in every game, going 8-for-17 (.471), and Hatley went 5-for-5 in Game 4 to finish at 7-for-18 (.389).

n

SURPRISE TEAM: Joe Hubbard’s ninth-seeded Kannapolis club was the surprise team of the Area III playoffs, knocking off Lexington-Davidson, Eastern Randolph and Mocksville-Davie to get to the finals.

Kannapolis upset Mocksville with big rallies in the top of the ninth inning in Games 1 and 5. Hubbard’s team won the series despite being outscored 45-30.

Hubbard was upbeat after his team lost the title series to Rowan after leading 11-2 early in Game 4 before losing 16-14.

“We knew they were going to come back. They’re a great team, and they weren’t going to lay down and die. That’s what happened,” said Hubbard.

Rowan scored 14 straight runs to go up 16-11, then Kannapolis tried to win for the fourth time in two series with a ninth-inning rally. After Kannapolis cut the deficit to 16-14, Sides retired the final two batters.

“We told the kids tonight, ‘Guys, you can’t rely on and wait until the ninth inning, because those things don’t happen all the time.’ The kids didn’t go down. We could have gone 1-2-3 like that and been done, and we didn’t. We battled, and I was proud of them for doing that,” said Hubbard.

He thinks his team will benefit in the state tourney by having played four games against Rowan.