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GRANITE FALLS — Daniel Moore struck out 13. Brian Hatley and Nick Lefko launched mammoth home runs. North Raleigh played the game with just three reserves.
Early indications gave Saturday night’s game to Rowan County, probably by a 10-run rule rout. It didn’t happen that way, but Rowan County still managed to pull out a 10-8 win against North Raleigh to advance in the winners bracket of the American Legion Baseball State Championship Tournament.
Cal Hayes Jr. and Hatley turned on the speed in the top of the eighth inning to plate two runs against tiring North Raleigh starter Matt Bishop. Rowan reliever Philip Goodman made it hold up, allowing a single run over the final four innings, fooling the Raleigh batters with a dancing knuckleball for many of his outs.
Rowan and North Raleigh waited three hours to play because of three long games before them at M.S. Deal Stadium. Crowds of 2,500 watched early winners Cherryville, Wayne County and Caldwell County, but as Rowan’s victory stretched well past midnight, only the diehards remained.
They saw an incredible finish to an unlikely game. Rowan looked ready to romp when Cal Hayes Jr. led off the game reaching on an error and Hatley launched a home run high into the netting in left field.
The lead grew to 5-0 in the third inning. Brett Peiffer sent a double to center and scored on an error when Drew Davis’ hit was mishandled. Lefko followed that with a laser beam over the center-field fence that skimmed past the flag pole and over the 360-foot sign.
Five-run leads with Moore on the mound generally are grounds for leaving the park early. The 6-foot-6 left-hander struck out the side in the first inning and gave up two hits in the second around three more Ks
He opened the third by walking Steven Burns, then Brandon Harris cued a single to right and Zack Williams singled to left to make it 5-1. Moore retired the next two batters on strikes, and thought he closed out the inning on a 3-2 pitch to Lee Allen that was called a ball to load the bases.
Undaunted, Moore got Daniel Ennis to pop weakly to short right field. Second baseman Nate Woodburn drifted back for it, then gave way to right fielder Nick Lefko. The ball dropped between them for two runs, and Lefko’s throw to third sailed wild, making it 5-4.
North Raleigh took the lead the next inning when Burns reached on an error and Harris walked. Moore thought he had Williams dead to rights on a 2-2 curve. Instead, he came back with a 3-2 fastball, which Williams launched over the center-field wall for a 7-5 lead.
Rowan scratched for a run in the fifth on Brad Canipe’s two-out single. Moore got strikeouts 12 and 13 in the bottom half and was done for the night, having thrown 113 pitches.
But he still left with a lead, because in the top of the sixth inning, Hayes led off with a walk, took second on a wild pitch and scored on Hatley’s blooper down the right-field line. Peiffer’s double made it 8-7.
Goodman came on in the sixth and got into his only trouble. A pair of singles and another error brought home Brett Hall with the tying run, and the game remained deadlocked until the eighth.
Again, Hayes was the catalyst. He singled to right field, took second on Woodburn’s groundout and third on Hatley’s infield tapper that went for a hit.
Peiffer lofted a high fly to short center, but head coach Jim DeHart had no problem sending the fleet Hayes home, and he scored standing up. Davis then added an insurance run with a double to the gap in short right-center. Hatley motored all the way around from first and didn’t even draw a throw.
Goodman got two quick outs in the eighth, gave up a single and got cleanup man Adam Loftin looking to end the inning. He opened the ninth with three straight balls to Greg Bunn before fighting back to a 3-2 count and inducing a weak popup to right. Hayes fielded a grounder for out No. 2, and, after a walk, got Bishop looking to end it.
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NOTES: Hayes was hit on the left wrist by a pitch in the fourth inning and went down in obvious pain. He hopped up and went to first, then paused again and waited for tape. He seemed fine as the game wore on. … Goodman didn’t walk a batter until the ninth. … Canipe had three singles in his first three at-bats.
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