Overcash, a recent West Rowan High grad came out of the bullpen to finish off Wednesday night’s 13-3 Mooresville win over South Rowan in the first round of the playoffs with two strikeouts.

Graham, a 16-year-old rising junior at West, played a flawless second base for the Moors, while contributing two RBIs on a fifth-inning, opposite-field single off fellow Falcon Jared Barnette.

Everyone knows the establishment of a South Legion program in 1995 changed the local Legion landscape. Obviously, things changed for all South Rowan High kids, for most West Rowan High kids and for a small percentage of East Rowan High kids. And also for the Rowan County Legion team and for the Kannapolis Legion team, both of whom saw their talent pools become shallower.

Overlooked, however, was the impact the new South Legion team had on Mooresville.

Meadows established the Mooresville program in 1972 and at different times, depending on which of his neighbors fielded teams, drew players from Lincoln County, Catawba County and Iredell County, as well as West and South Rowan.

Pulling players from that vast empire, Meadows won a division championship in 1981. None of Meadows’ pitching stars that year were native Moors. There was South Rowan High’s Sam Moore, a future pro; West Rowan High’s Tim Beaver, the miracle kid who battled back from leukemia; and a guy from over in Sherrill’s Ford named Bryan Harvey, who would become a major league all-star.

Meadows, who played shortstop in the minor leagues from 1952-1960, drew so heavily from South Rowan High in the ‘70s that he once put a team made up of nine South kids on the field when Mooresville played Rowan in the Steve Lee Memorial game.

“Over the years, there’s always been a number of Rowan kids who lived up our way who wanted to play for us,” said Meadows. “We always got a few. And (Rowan coach) Jim DeHart always worked with us.”

But now Meadows has but two Rowan kids.

“We had a couple more good ones from West — Jared Barnette and Drew Callicutt — just in the last couple years,” said Meadows. “But they wanted to play with their friends on the South Legion and I understand that. You want kids to be happy. You want kids to play ball and maybe get a scholarship somewhere.”

Callicutt is the South Legion’s best hitter and Barnette arguably its best pitcher, so it’s not hard to see the Moors moving up a few notches in the Area III standings if Whitey had them. But Meadows shrugs. That’s water under the bridge.

“Yes, Jared’s one of the best pitchers in this league and I knew he would be,” he said. “But I think the world of him. I wanted him to be where he wanted to be, so we released him last year.”

There are no hard feelings between Barnette and Meadows.

Wednesday night, Barnette was going to pitch against Mooresville. He also needed a haircut. So Wednesday morning he sat in a swivel chair and allowed Meadows, who has been shearing youngsters since 1958, to put the clippers to his head and the straight razor to his neck and sideburns.

Meadows also got in the last words.

“I cut ‘Close, but no cigar’ into Jared’s head,” said Meadows, grinning hugely.

But it’s not always easy for Whitey to smile. He’ll tell you he’ll play whatever hand he’s dealt, but he’s competing these days — with the exception of his nephew Jeremy Sherrill, a Northwest Cabarrus Trojan — with kids from Mooresville High and South Iredell High.

And, of course, Overcash and Graham.

He’s thankful for them. They keep the Rowan connection alive for the Moors and that’s something near and dear to Meadows, who grew up in nearby Mount Ulla as one of 15 brothers and sisters.

“Graham has been a pleasant surprise,” said Meadows. “When he came here we hadn’t planned on him being the regular second baseman, but now he is. He can do all he has to do. He’s consistent with the glove and the bat.”

Graham lives on Neel Road 15-20 minutes from Mooresville and says he likes playing for Meadows.

“My cousins Josh and Seth are part of the team,” he said. “I like it up here. The only tough part is like tonight when you beat your friends. You feel bad for them.”

Overcash likes it at Mooresville, too. He’s a rubber-armed closer who nearly made the All-Rowan county team. West Rowan coach Chris Cauble will tell you that there’s no way the Falcons get near the 3A playoffs without Overcash’s three wins and county-high five saves.

Tradition made Overcash a Moor. His dad, Craig, played for that original Meadows team in 1972. Now, Josh is in his fourth year as a Meadows man. Overcash just happens to be in the neighborhood. He lives within a Mark McGwire homer of the Iredell County line.

Meadows likes Overcash, because he’s a thinking man’s pitcher. That’s how he was able to whiff two of South’s big guns, Callicutt and Daniel Pinyan, on called strikes to send people home on Wednesday.

“The ump was giving pretty good corners,” said Overcash. “So I just kept it away from them.”

Overcash is polite and soft-spoken, but says there’s no room for sentiment when it comes to pitching to his West buddies on the South Rowan and Rowan teams.

“We’re friends, but we wear different uniforms now,” he said. “And when I go out there, I’m out there to win.”