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ALBEMARLE — There are certain things you can always count on when you visit Montgomery Park, home of the Stanly County American Legion team.
You know for a fact that the tireless public address announcer will entertain folks with hand after hand of “license plate poker.” He’ll update the size of the half-and-half pot every five minutes. He’ll give away free stuff ranging from roller-skating junkets to milk shakes.
You also know for certain that the dirt infield will cause a bad hop or three. That a fly ball or two will disappear into the lights and that an unsuspecting car will get smacked as it rolls down Highway 52. You also know that the insects will bite and that the hot dogs will be mighty good.
Oh yeah, and you know the baseball team won’t be bad, either. Stanly rudely welcomed South Rowan with a 13-3 whipping on Wednesday night in a game stopped in the bottom of the eighth by the 10-run rule.
“We played well and hit it well,” said Stanly shortstop Josh Ussery, who smacked three of his team’s 14 hits. “If we get our pitching rotation right, we’ll win a lot of games.
The 75th edition of Stanly Legion looked stout, even with its strong Albemarle High contingent still missing. The Bulldogs will play at Swain County on Saturday afternoon in the 1A state playoff semifinals.
“I can’t complain at all with how we played,” said David Lee, coach of the West Stanly Colts during the high school season. “We got good pitching (from North Stanly High products, Steven Vaughn and Derek Barringer), good defense and we swung the bats.”
And what else is there?
Chemistry, maybe?
“Oh, I like our chemistry,” said Lee. “For our first game, I liked it a lot.”
South coach Allen Wilson, on the other hand, wasn’t exactly thrilled with most of what transpired. Wilson’s rarely at a loss for words. For a few moments last night, though, he was. “I told the guys I’m not used to losing 13-3,” he said. “Hey, I don’t have a 13-3 speech.”
South had boosted its talent base since its opener — East Rowan catcher Jeremy Alderman and pitcher Drew Lyerly, speedy West Rowan High outfielder Matt Morgan and equally fast South Rowan High outfielder Derick Efird — but as a unit, it didn’t play nearly as well as it did in its 10-3 loss to Wilkes on Sunday.
“No, we didn’t,” agreed Wilson. “It wasn’t like we didn’t hustle, but just weren’t as into it mentally. We just weren’t prepared to play on every pitch.”
Something was missing, that’s for sure. Maybe it was the fact that the guys who figure to bat 1-2 in the lineup were ailing. Ryan Schenk rolled his ankle badly playing P.E. basketball and couldn’t run. Wilson gave Schenk the steal sign after he started the game with a single, and Schenk was thrown out by a yard. Hobbling, he gave way to Morgan in the second inning. Then there was hard-hitting Ronnie Shore, who played only half the game because of a tender throwing arm.
But it wasn’t just those two. This was one of those team-effort things. South (0-2) failed to make defensive plays by a half-step perhaps a half-dozen times. South pitchers walked seven, which is Wilson’s pet peeve. And South had a handful of runners thrown out by an eyelash. Wilson also didn’t get a call at home plate on a Stanly double steal, and that had to deflate the troops.
The first two innings told the story.
In the first, South had four baserunners on two singles, an error and a walk, but failed to score.
Then Stanly came in and rocked South starter Jeremy Teague with a six-spot. There were a couple of shots in the inning, including a triple by Ussery, but in fairness to Teague, a couple of plays that might have gotten him out of that mess weren’t made. He got only two outs, before being relieved by Tim Cook.
“Teague was pitching from behind in the count and he can’t do that,” said Wilson.
South still had a heck of a chance to make it a game in the second. Craig Haas walked, Brian Yon singled and Greg Deal was hit by a pitch to fill the bases. Then Morgan reached on an error, as Haas scored the first South run. There were still no outs. And with two of its bigger sticks, Jared Barnette and Drew Callicutt, due up, South fans forgot about “license plate poker” for a spell. But Barnette fanned and Callicutt rapped into an inning-ending double play.
“We’re getting guys on,” said Wilson. “I’ve got to do a better job of getting people to relax and drive them in.”
South did get within 7-3 in the fifth when Callicutt’s grounder scored Morgan and Daniel Pinyan’s line single to center plated Barnette. But that was as close as it got.
Stanly won going away. It led 9-3 heading to the bottom of the eighth, then ended matters via the 10-run rule against relievers Matt Benfield and Josh Carson. Ashley Wensil’s line single to left scored Brandon Lewis with the run that sent Stanly fans home happy.
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NOTES: Wilson felt Cook’s solid 4 2/3 innings of three-hit relief was the bright spot. ... Despite everything, South turned in some defensive gems. Callicutt’s throw from right nailed Lewis at the plate (Alderman blocked it nicely) in the fourth. Barnette, playing short, made a remarkable running catch in medium left to end the first inning. South also had a 5-3-6 double play in the sixth when Barnette, then at third, fielded a grounder and threw to first. Then Shore took Pinyan’s return throw across the diamond and tagged out Jonathan Nichols trying to go from second to third. ... Lee said his team will play aggressively. It stole six bases, although Alderman threw out one would-be thief. South plays at unbeaten Mooresville (4-0, 1-0) on Saturday. Wilson figures Barnette will hurl.
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