GRANITE FALLS — A red-hot Cherryville team forced Rowan County into the losers bracket here Sunday night.
Rowan fell 8-6 in the North Carolina AmericanLegion Baseball State Championship Tournament’s winners bracket semifinals to Cherryville’s Area IV champions, who have won 28 of their last 32 games.
Rowan’s Area III champions, who had lost only two previous playoff games, will battle for survival against Wilmington Post 10 at 4 p.m. today at M.S. Deal Stadium.
Coach Jim DeHart’s Rowan club, 29-12 for the season, gave Cherryville (33-9) all it could handle before the Area IV team batted around in the seventh inning and scored three times for a 7-4 lead.
Rowan, trailing 8-4 going into the top of the ninth inning, still threw a scare into coach Bobby Dale Reynolds’ Cherryville club by scoring twice and putting runners at second and third with two outs.
Hard-throwing right-hander Darren Leonard, who had been sidelined with an injury most of the season, then came out of the bullpen to face Rowan’s Brad Canipe, who grounded to first base to end the threat.
Rowan, despite the loss, had its share of stars. Right fielder Nick Lefko had two clutch doubles that drove in runs in the sixth and ninth innings. BrianHatley and CalHayes Jr. hit long leadoff home runs in the sixth and ninth innings. Lefko, Brett Peiffer and Canipe each had two hits.
Hatley, who had been bothered by a sore elbow last week, started on the mound and battled his way into the seventh inning before going out of the game with arm and leg cramps. The loss was his first of the season after eight wins.
“The elbow was all right. I got tired,” said Hatley. “The humidity got to me. I started cramping up a little bit in my legs and my arm. ... They (cramps) were hitting me before, but I didn’t say anything because I wanted to stay in.”
“I was real proud,” said DeHart. “They came back. I think possibly one little base hit: If Hatley hadn’t got hurt and been just worn out. We had to put (Brandon) Doby in there in his batting position. He came up in a crucial spot. Doby battled him(Cherryville pitcher Ryan Freeman), and I thought he did a good job.”
Doby had relieved the exhausted Hatley in the seventh with Cherryville up 5-4 and the bases loaded. Cherryville got one run on a Doby wild pitch and another on a rare triple steal with two outs for a 7-4 advantage. The only hit allowed by Doby was a leadoff eighth-inning homer to slugging Brian Sigmon, who had also homered off Hatley to start the seventh.
Doby, who had only two official at-bats prior to last night, was then Rowan’s third batter in the ninth, coming up after Hayes’ homer and Erik Mowery’s single. Doby worked the count full before he was struck out by Freeman.
Rowan didn’t go down easily, however. Peiffer singled to put runners at first and second, then Drew Davis’ long fly to center advanced pinch-runner Bobby Parnell to third. Lefko drilled a line drive double to the fence in center, driving in Parnell and moving Peiffer to third.
Leonard, who had a 4-0 record as a starter before his arm injury, then struck out Canipe.
“I thought we lost our composure a little bit that inning (seventh) they got the three runs,” said DeHart. “But we regained it. We just threw Sigmon too many fastballs, and he hit it out.”
Sigmon, who now has 17 home runs and a .468 batting average, is no stranger to Rowan.He was a star for Cherryville’s state champions in 1998, the year Cherryville downed Rowan four games to two for the Western North Carolina title.
“He came up big and added that extra run,” said Reynolds of his star catcher. “He’s been with us three years and played in the World Series. He pitched in the championship game. He’s our stud from last year on the mound, but he hasn’t pitched all year. He was 13-2 and pitched every big game we had. He got bursitis in his shoulder in high school (last spring).”
Reynolds said of Rowan, “They’re a well coached team. Coach DeHart’s a great coach, and he’s got a great staff. They’re fundamentally sound. ... They’re just a talented bunch of kids. We expected what we got, and that was all we wanted. I’m sure he expected the same thing. Until that last out, who’s going to win?”
Lefko’s double in the ninth didn’t go as far as the earlier homers by Hatley andHayes, but it kept Rowan alive in a desperate situation.
“The first time I came up (double in the sixth), I wanted to hit the ball hard. I did it, and it stayed fair. I was feeling great,” said the Rowan right fielder. “When it came around to that last time at-bat, I wanted to bat. I got down in the count and kind of got down. Then he (Freeman) made a mistake to me.I got a good pitch to hit and nailed it to center.”
Lefko’s double went all the way to the fence 360 feet away because center fielder James Fletcher was shaded toward right.
“I knew it wasn’t going out, but if I would have got under it, I think it had a chance. I really hit it good,” added Lefko.
“We had a great game. Everybody contributed. We just started a little late.”
Now Rowan faces Wilmington, which beat Rowan 8-4 in a non-league game at Wilmington on June 4.
“Wilmington is a team we’ve played before. I believe we could have beat them,” said Lefko. “I believe we will beat them tomorrow.”
DeHart, a Wilmington native who once played for Post 10, said, “We’re going to come back in the losers bracket. We’ve got a good chance. We’ve got (Julian) Sides going for us. If Julian’s on, we’ve got a good chance. We’ve played them. We know what to expect. If we don’t win, then we’ve had a good run, but we fully expect to win.”
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