South Legion ‘jumps into the fire’

BY MIKE LONDON
SALISBURY POST

South lost 10-3 on Sunday to visiting Wilkes County, but had a legitimate chance to win as late as the eighth inning. South “jumped into the fire,” as Wilson put it, playing a league game right off the bat, but appeared to have enough talent to compete with a number of teams.

“Nobody likes to lose, especially me,” said Wilson, after his debut, “but I liked what I saw out there.”

Wilson wasn’t just talking about the weather (which was great) or the crowd (which was large). There was also some good stuff going on down on the field.

Steady Daniel Pinyan, who figures to be a key RBI man, belted a two-run homer in the fifth. Talented Drew Callicutt, of whom huge things will be expected, hit the ball on the nose in four straight at-bats and pitched seven solid innings. Catcher Brian Yon, injured much of his senior season at South Rowan High, did a nice job of catching an unfamiliar pitcher and banged out two solid hits.

The defense wasn’t bad at all. South didn’t make an error until the eighth and two guys just getting used to one other around the middle bag (South Rowan High shortstop Ronnie Shore and West Rowan High shortstop Jared Barnette, who played second) turned a double play.

As Wilson pointed out, South also hit cutoff men and ran the bases aggressively.

The downside was that South started late, going down 1-2-3 in the first four innings and spotting Wilkes six quick runs.

Wilkes scored three in the second on two bloop singles and a long homer by No. 8 hitter Dennis Eller. The homer came off a high slider from Callicutt.

“One bad pitch, and it meant three runs,” sighed Wilson.

Jamie Dowell’s two-out, two-run single keyed a three-run Wilkes third that made it 6-0.

South actually looked to be the sharper team in the middle innings. Callicutt settled in and his teammates finally got their bats going. John Brooks walked with one out in the fifth, becoming the first baserunner allowed by Wilkes right-hander Ryan Nichols, who pitched at Wilkes Community College this spring. Pinyan then delivered his homer to left to make it 6-2. Craig Haas followed with a walk, went to third on Yon’s single and scored on Drew Covington’s grounder.

Wilkes made it 7-3 in the eighth against South reliever Trent Beaver.

But in the bottom of the inning, South had a chance to get right back in it. After two quick outs, Callicutt, Brooks and Pinyan rapped singles to load the bases. That brought Haas to the plate as the tying run, but he went after the first pitch and skied to right.

“We were a hit, maybe two hits away,” said Wilson. “But we got eight hits against a college pitcher and that’s not bad. We just didn’t get the two-out hits tonight.”

Wilkes tacked on three runs in the ninth. A couple of walks issued by Beaver, a 1999 South graduate who is on the comeback trail with his nasty curveball, and an error started trouble. Sammy Styers’ four-hopper through a drawn-in infield scored two runs before Wilson called on lefty Chris Morris to get the last three outs.

Wilson’s postgame chat with his team lasted fewer than five minutes. He grinned about that.

“No need to chew butts,” he said. “We hustled, kept our heads up and didn’t quit. We played pretty good baseball.”

Pinyan agreed.

“We played with a lot of intensity and had fun,” he said. “We’ve got guys from different schools here, but we’re all coming together. We’ll get better.”

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NOTES: Wilson’s first starting lineup consisted of five Falcons and four Raiders, but nothing is set in stone at this point. ... The drama concerning the ultimate destination of West’s star soph Ben Hampton continues. ... Wilson does have Jeremy Teague, the East Rowan pitcher who went 7-2 in the high school season. ... Currently, 12 players from South, nine from West and Teague make up Wilson’s published roster. ... Pinyan, who is headed for Lenoir-Rhyne, immediately equalled his homer output for the prep season. ... Both former South Legion coaches, Ernie Faw and Dwayne Fink, were in the house. ... Ryan Schenk hit a blast to center that might have been out of some parks, but was just a long out in Landis.