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SPENCER — Stay alert, North Rowan. A lethal lineup looms.
Greene Central, eastern regional champion and four-time state champ, puts able pitchers on the mound and a capable defense in the field.
But when it comes to winning this year’s Class 2A N.C. High School Athletic Association state baseball title, the Rams plan on beating it out of the western champion Cavaliers.
The best-of-three series opens Saturday at 11 a.m. at Five County Stadium in Zebulon. Game 2 follows at 5 p.m., and if necessary, Game 3 will be played Sunday at 2 p.m.
“We haven’t had this offensive punch in a while,” Rams head coach James “Rabbit” Fulghum said. “Up and down the lineup, we’ve got as much hitting as we’ve ever had.”
When Fulghum says “ever,” it means something. In 36 years at Greene Central, Fulghum’s teams own four state titles — 3A crowns in 1972 and 1980 and 2A wins in 1987 and 1990.
Bountiful bats could make it five for the Eastern Plains Conference co-champ, ranked No. 1 in the state at 23-5.
Seniors Jon Davis, Justin Wilkes and Jon Harrell pace an offense in which six of nine starters boast batting averages better than .300.
Greene Central cracked 27 home runs in the regular season compared to North Rowan’s 12, and the Rams outscored playoff opponents 34-6. North’s winning margin of 27-10 might not impress quite as much, but it still got the Central Carolina Conference champ into the finals as the second-ranked team in the state with its 22-5 record.
“Polls really don’t make a whole lot of difference right now. There’s a whole lot of twos, threes and fours who have gotten knocked out the last couple of weeks,” North head coach Bill Kesler said. “It just comes down to who plays the best two out of three.”
First and foremost, it depends on how well Greene Central’s offense handles North ace Daniel Moore in the opener.
Plenty of potent offenses have withered against Moore, the 6-foot-6 left-hander who struck out 161 batters in 831/3 innings this season. The University of North Carolina signee sports a 12-2 record and 0.42 earned run average.
All those numbers don’t scare the Rams, though. Another future Tar Heel, Whitley Benson, went up against Greene Central in the playoffs this year. The Plymouth right-hander gave up eight hits, but his defense also committed four errors that led to six unearned runs in the 9-2 decision.
“We know we’re going up against an awfully good pitcher, so hopefully we won’t give up too many runs,” Fulghum said. “We’re going to try to get two or three runs, which will be awfully tough. He (Moore) will be the best pitcher we face this year by far.”
To prepare for Benson, Fulghum sped up the pitching machine at practice. He’s already done the same this week in the hopes his hitters will get around on Moore’s 85-90 mph fastballs.
Davis and Wilkes did a lot of the damage against Plymouth. The two infielders come in batting .444, while Harrell, the first baseman, is at .443.
Harrell leads the team in home runs with seven, while Davis has five and Wilkes four. Davis also boasts a team-high 41 RBIs.
“We respect every player, every pitcher we face,” Fulghum said. “Sometimes a pitcher has that little extra inside. Or it may not even boil down to pitching and defense.
Greene Central’s pitching hasn’t been too bad. Matt Sutton, the expected starter for Game 1, is a sophomore lefty who’s 7-3. He struck out 59 and walked 28 in 571/3 innings.
Stephen Kearney, a senior right-hander, is 10-2, and Davis has two saves in the postseason.
“Hopefully we can put a couple runs on the board,” Fulghum said. “We’ve played good defense most of the year and the pitching has had a good year.
“But we know North Rowan has got an awfully good team.”
Fulghum also knows that Greene Central’s four titles — four more than North — don’t mean a thing for all of this year’s participants.
“This is the first trip for all of these players on both teams,” Fulghum said. “When the season started, the kids in the back of their minds knew they had an outside chance of getting there depending on their attitude and work ethic.
“I think we would have been dissatisfied to not get this far.”
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