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MOCKSVILLE — Central Piedmont Conference baseball is a strange animal.
You can subpoena Davie County coach Mike Herndon to the stand to testify. He’s a witness. His team played great last Friday and lost. It played not-so-great Tuesday night at Rich Park and still beat South Rowan 6-4. Davie had nearly as many errors (four) as hits (five). It survived. Somehow.
South Rowan coach Linn Williams is also a witness to the weirdness. He saw his team beat West Forsyth in extra innings on the road, then lose to the same folks at home by 23-6 — 24 hours later. Williams watched his team score 11 unanswered runs against R.J. Reynolds, only to hang on by a fingernail, 11-10. Against Davie, Williams’ guys played about as solidly as they have in 2001. Naturally, they have a loss to show for it.
Last Friday’s loss by Herndon’s War Eagles was a gut-churning brouhaha with Mount Tabor and its Wake Forest-bound hurler, Brian Bach. Davie led 3-0, lost 5-3.
“That game with Tabor got our kids down,” said Herndon. “We had kids crying after that one. We had people calling us crybabies, but that was OK. It showed me the kids care.
“But it was a tough loss for all of us to shake. I wanted to find somebody to play the next day, just to get it out of my system.”
Instead, Davie had to stew three days until South’s visit. Davie (10-3, 2-1) wasn’t so hot, but this time the baseball gods were kinder.
“We’ve gotta do a better job than we did tonight,” said Herndon. “We’ve gotta have more pride on defense. We have to do better on the little things or we can lose to anyone. This league’s pretty balanced.”
Not to mention, strange.
Anyway, Davie now has a lead on South in the race for the CPC’s two state playoff berths.
“We’re not out of it by any means,” said Williams, whose team is 2-2 in the CPC. “But the guys knew whoever won this one was going to be in the driver’s seat toward a playoff position.”
Based on records and reputations, it wasn’t supposed to be all that close. But South (5-7 overall) hit some shots, made some plays, got some pitching. And the outfield defense, which was killing the Raiders a few weeks ago, showed it’s come a long, long way.
“If South plays like it did tonight, they can beat about anyone,” said Herndon.
South trailed 3-0 early, then dropped behind by four, late. It kept coming.
Down 6-2 in the sixth inning, walks to Ronnie Shore and Dan Hoffman and William VanWieren’s single loaded the bases with no outs against Davie’s ace right-hander, Travis Allen. That’s when Herndon summoned shortstop Andrew “Yard Dog” Daywalt to the mound to replace Allen (6-0), moved second baseman Ricky Bentley to short and inserted Matt Dalton into the game at second.
Herndon’s timing was impeccable. The first man Daywalt faced — .400-hitting Chase Goodale — slapped the ball at Bentley. Bentley fed Dalton, and Dalton, who had been on the field just a few seconds, turned a double play that proved to be the game’s shining and defining moment. South got a run on the play, but then Daywalt fanned Greg Deal to end the threat.
“The story was missed opportunities,” said Williams. “We make an error — Davie’s next guy (David Poplin) hits a home run. Davie makes an error, we don’t take advantage. Bases loaded, no outs, we get one run. Runners at third with less than two outs, we can’t get ’em home. That was the difference.”
Williams watched Raider runners die at third base in the third and fifth. He grimaced as Bentley pegged out Deal to end a fourth-inning rally — while lying flat on his backside.
Even after that dreadfully deflating sixth, South took one more shot. Derek Morrison and David Ritchie hopped off the bench to start the seventh with back-to-back pinch-hit doubles. But, with the pressure mounting, Daywalt coolly erased the top of South’s lineup on two ground balls and a strikeout.
Almost all Davie’s damage against South starter Jared Wingler (2-4) was done by Poplin, the tall tight end on the football team. Poplin cracked that two-run homer on a hanging curve in the first and rifled a two-run double down the third-base line in the fifth. Poplin went 4-for-30 last season, but his bat has now become the keynote speaker in Herndon’s offense.
“I struggled last year, to say the least,” Poplin laughed. “But now I’ve got some confidence.”
So do all the War Eagles. Last Friday’s tearful frustration is forgotten.
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NOTES:South needs a league win over Mount Tabor Friday. ... Daywalt is hitting over .500, but went 0-for-2. ... The switch-hitting Shore is at .486 after a 1-for-2 day with two walks. ... Goodale and Hoffman knocked in Raider runs in the fourth. ... Chris Seaford had a sac fly for Davie.
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