“Our kids were up for this one,” said McCarthy. “Hey, it was Rowan County we were playing. Don’t tell me that (Rowan coach) Jim DeHart doesn’t want to win every game he coaches. Why else did he try all his tricks? And did you see Rowan’s kids when they left the field? They weren’t happy; they were mad.”

McCarthy was right about that. Rowan’s kids were fuming, because they lost a tough ballgame — one they led going into the ninth. And when you do that, the hot dogs don’t taste as good and your girlfriend doesn’t look as pretty.

“No, it’s not league, but this game really was a big deal to us,” said Nate Woodburn, who had three of Rowan’s nine hits. “They beat us last time (10-9 at Lexington) and we surely didn’t want to lose to those guys again.”

“We’ll be fine,” added leadoff man Cal Hayes Jr, who reached base four times. “We just feel sort of bad because we had ‘em beat.”

It wasn’t like Rowan (16-9) kicked it away. It was more a case of Lexington coming through when it had to.

“Yeah, we played well enough to win,” said Woodburn. “I’d say well enough to beat most people. But Lexington’s one heck of a good ball team.”

Like “Woody” said, Lexington is one heck of a team. Its 12-8 league mark hardly reflects its talent. McCarthy’s team started 0-6, but once it got rolling, it’s been hotter than the proverbial $2 pistol. Last night’s win was its ninth straight, and if you’re looking for a playoff darkhorse to put a buck on in Vegas, Lexington, which swept Rowan for the first time since Jimmy Carter ran the White House, might be your team.

DeHart, competitor though he is, wasn’t exactly fretting about his team’s second straight loss.

“It was a good spectator game,” he said. “But we put a lot of people in and changed our lineup all around. So I’m not too concerned we didn’t win it.”

DeHart pointed out that had the outcome mattered, two of his three All-State players, Daniel Moore and Brian Hatley, would not have taken the night off. Both stars took an approved “Senior Day” holiday and were not in uniform.

“Daniel could have come in and shut them down in the ninth,” said DeHart. “He’d had ample rest.”

“And when you don’t have Hatley that’s a big bat out of your lineup,” added Hayes.

“I know some kids weren’t here,” shrugged McCarthy. “It’s still Rowan.”

McCarthy basically has three pitchers and rotated them in three-inning shifts.

DeHart countered with Brandon Doby and Julian Sides, who aren’t Moore and Hatley, but are certainly front-line hurlers. Doby pitched like crazy, giving up one unearned run in four innings. Sides came on to start the fifth and was spectacular. He fanned nine, including the side in the fifth and sixth.

Rowan scored first when Brett Peiffer’s third-inning double scored Hayes.

Rowan right fielder Nick Lefko made a tremendous catch in the fourth, crashing into the wall to take a double away from Brent Walser, but Lexington still scored a run in the inning to tie.

Lexington leadoff man Gary Tilley pounded a Sides pitch out of the park for his team-leading eighth homer to give the visitors a 2-1 lead in the fifth. Rowan got that run back in its half when Woodburn doubled in Hayes. Then in the sixth, Rowan took a 3-2 edge when Brad Canipe banged one off the right-field fence to score Lefko.

In the eighth, Scott Wilson singled off Sides and went to third on Matt Coleman’s one-out double. DeHart then ordered an intentional walk to slugger Nick Lockhart, loading the bases. Sides got Rowan out of the jam by fanning Lexington’s third pitcher, Zach Snyder, on three pitches, and Phillip Shoaf. Sides fell behind Shoaf 3-1, but blew in a fastball for the second strike, then froze him with a curve.

“These kids have been battling since they were 0-6,” said McCarthy. “We weren’t worried about being down one run. Not when we’ve scored eight or 10 in a lot of innings.”

Brett Younts walked to start the ninth after a couple of close pitches that the Newman Park faithful swore were strikes. With one out, Chase Younts delivered a clutch single past third. Then Wilson singled to tie the game. Tripp Lockhart smacked a hit to left and Chase Younts raced home from second, just beating a strong throw from Aaron Safrit to put Lexington ahead 4-3. A big fifth run scored on a wild pitch by Woodburn, who relieved Sides.

Snyder, who has signed with Catawba, was the Lexington hero in the bottom of the inning. With one out, he hit Hayes with a pitch, then yielded a single to Woodburn. But the 6-foot-7 right-hander from West Davidson High whiffed Peiffer on a curve. He thought he had Hampton struck out too and was headed toward the dugout when he was called back. Hampton had just nicked a 1-2 pitch and catcher Shoaf hadn’t held it.

Snyder looked flustered, because his next delivery hit the backstop, allowing the runners to move up a base. But then he blazed high heat past a swinging Hampton, Rowan’s RBI leader, to finish the thriller.

“I thought it was over and really had to re-focus after that foul tip,” said Snyder. “It was a big win. You beat Rowan and you know you beat a great team. This was a lot like a playoff game. It gives us a lot of momentum.”