What inquiring pro and college scouts have been wanting to know, however, is can LeFaivre play defense.

He can. Just ask South Rowan coach Dwayne Fink. LeFaivre’s back-to-the-plate, running catch in deep right field turned around the Titan’s crazy 20-10 4A Central Piedmont Conference win over South (5-7, 0-3) on Tuesday night.

Things went South’s way early. Raider lefty Nick Mayle worked out of heavy jams in the first and second innings and Tim Cook launched a second-inning homer to left-center with Daniel Pinyan and Dan Huffman on base to hand Mayle a 3-0 cushion.

After Derrick Efird walked with two outs to extend the Raiders second, Mayle followed with a bomb. Initially, it looked like the sophomore’s blast might carry all the way over the Raiders’ distant right-field wall. But the wind grabbed it, and LeFaivre, who must have sprinted 40 yards just to reach the ball, made a miraculous catch over his shoulder as he raced toward the foul pole.

“People question Steve’s defense, but that was a big catch,” said Titan coach Randy Pope.

“No one else we’ve played is gonna make that catch,” said Fink. “But you play against really talented people like West has and they can make those plays. A catch like that can take the wind right out of your sails.”

The grab was huge. South would have led 4-0 and Mayle would have been standing at third with a triple. Instead, Mayle was headed back to the mound for the third inning. Once he got there, West (10-1, 3-0) took advantage of its momentum with walks, an error and a two-run single past third base by UNC Charlotte-bound catcher Chris Brake to forge a 4-3 lead.

“And after that,” said Fink, “we weren’t very lucky.”

South lost catcher Brian Yon when he re-injured the thumb that has hampered him much of the season. Then the Raiders lost Mayle when his forearm tightened up before the fourth.

“Nick had thrown a lot of breaking pitches and it was the coldest weather we’ve played in all year,” said Fink. “It tightened up and gave him a fit. It was a shame, because I really didn’t think they were on him.”

Fink had to go to his bullpen and the results were disastrous. West sent 16 batters to the plate in the fourth and a dozen scored for a 16-3 lead.

“I was real concerned because we came out flat, but then we started swinging pretty good,” understated Pope. “We’ve swung it like that all year. We’ve been rolling pretty decent.”

The miracle was that South didn’t pack it in and head for the warmth of the clubhouse at that point. Certainly, no one would have blamed them. But Matt Benfield delivered a three-run double in the fourth to make it 16-6.

Then, down 18-6 heading to the last of the fifth, South picked up four runs to stave off the 10-run rule. South scored all four after it had two outs. Cook, Craig Haas and Benfield, who knocked in his fourth run of the night, had key singles.

But the Titans got a pair of runs in the sixth to finally finish off the Raiders as the game neared the three-hour mark.

“I don’t know what you can say about this one,” laughed Pope. “I guess you say it’s high school baseball and anything can happen.”

Fink found some consolation in the fact that his team rallied against what he feels may be the best team the Raiders have seen to date.

“They’re probably the best,” said Fink. “They don’t have any weaknesses and they’ve got three Division I kids (first baseman-pitcher Skip Crider is the third, in addition to LeFaivre and Brake). To know we came back at a team as talented as West is something we can take out of here as a positive.”

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