Barnette delivers in West win

BY MIKE LONDON
SALISBURY POST

Drew Callicutt, a fair pitcher himself, who had a ringside seat in right field, echoed that Barnette was indeed “totally awesome.”

Even Barnette described the three-hit, 13-strikeout performance, which led his team to a 3-1 first-round win over Harding in the South Piedmont Conference Tournament, as the “most awesome” of his career.

Falcon coach Chris Cauble thought Barnette was pretty awesome, too, but he’s an adult, a fact which required him to dig a little deeper into his vocabulary.

“Barnette was on top of his game,” said Cauble. “Stronger in the seventh inning than he was in the first.”

In other words — “awesome.”

Barnette hadn’t pitched more than five innings in a game this season and hadn’t fanned more than eight. Yet, last night, thrown head-first into a pressure-cooker, he went the distance, gaining confidence and power with each pitch.

“Thirteen strikeouts,” repeated Barnette, shaking his head. “I’ve never done anything like that.”

“And against a real good-hitting team,” reminded Cauble.

Barnette (5-5) won his third straight and gave the performance of his baseball life in a game that was literally life-and-death for West. A loss to fifth-seeded Harding would have ended the season for fourth-seeded West. The win doesn’t guarantee anything more than a semifinal meeting today with top-seeded East at Staton Field, but at least, as Cauble is fond of saying, “the Falcons control their own destiny.”

Many possible playoff scenarios remain. Obviously, if West wins two more games and the tournament, it makes the state playoffs as the SPC’s No. 2 team.

If West loses tonight and No. 3 Kannapolis (which had the same regular season record as West) loses to No. 2 Central Cabarrus this afternoon, West and Kannapolis will play each other for the league’s No. 3 playoff berth, most likely prior to Thursday’s championship game.

If West wins today, while Kannapolis loses, the Falcons are in the playoffs. Conversely, if the Wonders win today, while West loses, Kannapolis is in. If both win, they’ll play each other for the title on Thursday.

Got it. Anyway, the bottom line is that to extend its season, West, (13-10) absolutely had to beat the Rams (14-11) last night. Barnette pitched as if he had a 17-year-old arm connected to a 35-year-old head. He pitched “backwards” most of the night, getting ahead of batters with his curve, then surprising them with a popping fastball.

“He pitched ahead,” said Cauble. “He had everyone off-stride. They had no idea what was coming next.”

For a long while, Harding ace Justin Prior, matched pitches with Barnette. But in the fourth inning, Hampton, after a brief conversation with himself at home plate, crushed a homer to right-center on a 1-2 pitch to finally give his batterymate the lead.

“I was talking to myself, telling myself that I had to get my head back in the game,” said Hampton, a strapping sophomore who took an awkward swing for his second strike. “A lot of times, I’ve been striking out when I get behind in the count. Not this time. We weren’t going to let Jared lose this one, and we weren’t going to let the seniors lose their last game on this field.”

The next batter, Callicutt, followed Hampton’s blast with an even higher, even deeper, even more majestic clout in the same general direction to make it 2-0.

“I was thinking when I went up there that it would really be something if I hit one, too,” said Callicutt. “I had to tease Ben that mine went farther, but the main thing was that they both put a point up there on the board.”

Points? Runs? Whatever.

Jonathan Brooks got a huge third run of the inning home with a two-out single.

But that was all the hitting West would do. The rest was up to the defense and Barnette, who gave up a scratch run in the sixth, but nothing more. Cauble visited the mound during the sixth-inning trouble spot, but it was just to pat Barnette on the rear, not to lift him.

Barnette and his teammates showed an attitude all game long that Cauble refers to as “old-school.” To inspire that mentality in the troops, Cauble extracted some 13-year-old light blue Falcon uniforms from a forgotten cedar chest and added some gaudy pin-striped pants that the West jayvees wore once upon a time.

Hey, whatever works. Barnette might be willing to wear those funky pants and that pale blue No. 8 to the prom if he’s going to keep getting results like this.

Monday, he pushed the shadows away from West’s season and gave his teammates, coaches and fans at least one more day of sunshine. He was in a word, “awesome.”