Brooks, starting his first game, hurled a complete game six-hitter as South downed last-place Statesville 6-1 in a league contest at South Rowan High School.

Brooks, now 2-1, flirted with a shutout before yielding a run in the seventh inning. He walked three batters and struck out nine.

“It’s my first one ever,” Brooks said of the nine-inning complete game, which saw him retire the final nine batters in a row and strike out the side in the ninth rather than tiring down the stretch. “My arm got a little stronger as it went on,” he said.

Brooks, who was 3-0 for West Rowan during the past high school season, said he didn’t go into the final inning with thoughts of striking out the side.

“I just wanted to get them out and go ahead and get the complete game,” he said.

Brooks’ best pitches were with a fastball and curveball.

“My slider wasn’t working. I couldn’t get my slider across,” he exclaimed.

South improved to 7-12 in the league and 7-15 overall heading into today’s 7:15 p.m. regular-season finale at home against Watauga County. Last-place Statesville closed out the regular season at 0-20.

Coach Allen Wilson of South was pleased not only with Brooks’ pitching, but with his team’s offense (12 hits, three for extra bases) and defense behind the pitcher.

“Brooks did a great job. He’s been throwing real well for us, been throwing strikes and getting people out. It was good to see him get a start. He pitched real well. ... He’s been coming in in relief a lot. He’s kind of filtered out as one of our guys we’re going to go with in the playoffs,” said Wilson.

South will play either Stanly County or Mooresville in a best-of-three first-round series that is scheduled to begin Wednesday.

“Right now it’s probably (Jared) Barnette, (Drew) Callicutt and Brooks. Or you could probably flip flop those last two,” said Wilson of his playoff rotation.

The South coach hopes to throw Barnette four innings and Callicutt three today because they haven’t had much mound work lately. Drew Lyerly is also slated to pitch a couple of innings.

“The hitting’s come around,” he said of the South offense, which had 14 hits the previous night in a 22-12 loss at home to Lexington-Davidson.

Daniel Pinyan helped South jump out to a 3-0 lead in the opening inning with a two-run homer to left. It was his second home run of the season. Barnette and Callicutt had triples, and Barnette, Callicutt, Derick Efird and Jeremy Alderman each had two hits.

Defensively, the only flaws were two unusual errors on catcher Alderman, who was called for interference in consecutive innings when the bats of Statesville hitters came into contact with his mitt. The home team had its share of excellent plays, including a diving catch in center field by Efird and a diving stop and great throw by third baseman Jeremy Teague, both in the eighth inning.

“That’s the type of defense that we’ve been playing most of the year. The outfield runs it down. Teague’s been playing great at third. Barnette’s played solid (at shortstop). (Greg) Deal’s played solid, and Pinyan’s a great first baseman. In a close game we feel good about what we can do defensively,” said Wilson.

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