A lost-and-found weekend for Rowan

BY ED DUPREE
SALISBURY POST

Rowan County may have lost a couple of AmericanLegion baseball games here Saturday and Sunday, but coach Jim DeHart thinks he’s found some extra pitching help.

Pleasure Island turned back Rowan 6-4 at Hoggard High School’s CorbinField here Sunday afternoon.

Rowan (8-5) had lost to perennial easternNorth Carolina power WilmingtonPost 10 by a score of 8-4 on Saturday night.

Rowan started the eastern road trip with a 3-1 victory over defending state champion Garner on Friday.

DeHart was especially pleased with the brief pitching performances of Shawn Trosper, Drew Davis and Philip Goodman in defeat on Sunday.

Trosper, a first baseman who hadn’t pitched in a game since the 1999 prep season, hurled 1 1/3 innings of shutout ball, yielding one hit and striking out three batters with his breaking pitches.

Davis, one of Rowan’s two regular catchers, allowed only an infield single during his inning on the mound, giving up one unearned run.He had one strikeout.

Goodman hurled a scoreless inning, allowing one hit.

“We found out Trosper can probably help us a little bit pitching,” said DeHart, explaining that Jack Moore, father of Rowan ace pitcher Daniel Moore, was the reason Trosper got to work on the mound.

“Jack Moore saw him throwing up at Wilkes County (May 29). He was in the back of the dugout while we were playing, throwing from the bullpen. He had that breaking pitch working, so we decided to give him a chance,” said DeHart.

Trosper, who pitched for a 14&under Amateur American Baseball Congress national championship Memphis, Tenn., team before moving to Salisbury in August of 1997, was all smiles after his outing on the mound.

“I threw pretty hard. Nobody really said anything about my curveball back then,” said Trosper.

Trosper, a native of Arkansas, joined the West Rowan High School baseball team as a freshman in the spring of 1998.

“I didn’t throw hard enough to get out any varsity hitters, so I didn’t pitch a whole lot.I tried to pitch a little bit last year (sophomore season). This is my first time on the mound this year,” said the right-handed pitcher.

“I love pitching,” said Trosper, who doesn’t care whether he’s a starter or reliever. “It doesn’t matter to me. I just like being on the mound competing, in there every pitch.”

“He’s got a little pop on the fastball. When he changes speeds like that, it makes it look a lot faster,” said DeHart.

DeHart added, “I thought Drew Davis did a great job. We just made some errors behind him. He’s got a slider, fastball and changeup. ... Goodman pitched great.

“He was throwing a knuckler and a little breaking pitch. I thought he was really effective.”

DeHart threw seven pitchers in the final non-league game until June 15.

Offensively, Ben Hampton was the leader for Rowan, going 3-for-3 with a double and two runs batted in. The left-handed hitter went 6-for-11 on the road trip for a .545 batting average. His hits included a home run and two doubles.

“Ben came through.He’s starting to hit the ball like he’s capable of hitting it. It just tells me that I made a good decision on putting him on first and leaving him there. He’s learning the position, and he’s going to make some errors.

“We’re going to live with that,” said DeHart.

Hampton, a catcher for West Rowan during the prep season, said he’s spent a lot of time on his hitting lately.

“We worked on it all day Thursday before we left for Garner, trying to stay back and working on my swing. It looks like it paid off this weekend,” said Hampton.

“The breaking pitches were killing me. They were getting me out on my front foot. Then on outside pitches, I was pulling off. SoI got to where I’m rocking back and forth. When he (pitcher) gets ready, I’ve got my weight back and I’m ready to shift forward,” explained Hampton.

Rowan 1(8-5 overall) may have lost to both Wilmington teams, but Hampton didn’t think the scores were important.

“It was three good games against good competition. We lost two of them. We’re going to have a good game Tuesday against Concord. Hopefully, we can bounce back then.It didn’t matter who won or lost this weekend,” he said.

Rowan had enough hits, 10, to beat Pleasure Island, but the visitors left 16 men on base. Rowan left the bases loaded four times.

“I think this trip has helped us a lot,” said DeHart. “I wanted to come against good competition and see what these guys could do under pressure. They proved about what I thought.”

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NOTES: Second-place Rowan has an open date today before hosting first-place Concord at 7:15 p.m. Tuesday at Newman Park. ... Rowan is scheduled to play 15 games over the next 15 days. ... Cal Hayes Jr. stole three bases and scored three runs against Pleasure Island. ... Scott “Scooter” Senatore, Pleasure Island’s star pitcher who has signed with the University of North Carolina, played right field and went 2-for-4 with a home and three runs batted in. He’ll be Daniel Moore’s teammate in Chapel Hill next season.