GRANITE QUARRY — It was a softball battle of the ages.
Literally.
In the decisive seventh inning, East Rowan had eight seniors on the field. West Rowan countered with eight freshmen.
The kids rallied to win 5-3, confirming a shift in the county’s balance of power that may last a while.
Prior to this season, West had never beaten East (7-7, 4-6), historically Rowan’s most successful fast-pitch program. Now the Falcons, who eked out a 2-1 thriller a month ago in Mount Ulla, own a sweet sweep.
The scintillating 3A South Piedmont Conference victory gives the Falcons (10-2, 8-2) more than just bragging rights. It all but wraps up a state playoff berth. The Falcons, tied for second in the SPC with Northwest Cabarrus, are a lock to finish in the league’s top three.
“It was a big game for us,” said West freshman Ashley Dowdy, whose two-run, bases-loaded single in the seventh was the decisive blow. “When we were at West Middle, Erwin, was our rival game. Now, that we’re in high school, East games are even bigger.”
East coach Mike Waddell had analyzed the matchup as the Mustangs’ power against West’s tremendous speed. He was on target. East swung away, looking for a game-breaking bomb. Meanwhile, West kept a constant squeeze on the Mustang infield by putting a staggering total of 16 bunts in play. East made four fatal errors.
“That’s the way we play,” said West coach Vanessa Noe. “Bunt, use our speed. Keep the pressure on.”
The first big blow of the game came from East cleanup batter, Julie Alexander, the county’s most feared hitter. Alexander’s RBI rap in the third put the Mustangs ahead 1-0. But that was the only knock Waddell would get from his powerful 3-4-5 batters.
“Our power didn’t show up,” Waddell sighed. “Same as the game at West.”
West’s Cara Graham scored on a throwing error on a bunt to tie the game in the fourth.
But the fired-up Mustangs retaliated in the bottom half. Michelle Haynes’ single and a walk prompted Noe to summon Lyndsey Gay from short to replace veteran pitcher Alicia Wilson. Gay got two quick outs, but with the runners at second and third, Amy Hoffman drilled a single to left. Haynes scored easily and when the ball scooted through the legs of a charging Graham — West’s only misplay of the game — an animated Waddell waved Melissa Bernhardt home for a 3-1 lead.
Dowdy plopped a single into right to lead off the sixth and navigated the bases on two bunts and another error to close the gap to 3-2. But, moments later, when Blair Harkey ripped a liner right at East second baseman Kasey Creeger, with the tying run standing at third, you got the feeling this might be East’s day. One last hurrah for a veteran team with 10 seniors.
West had other ideas.
“Nah, we weren’t worried,” Dowdy said. “Not even going into the seventh behind. We knew we had it in us. We kept each other up. No one got down.”
That’s confidence born of success. As a 14&under AAU team (The Frenzy) competing in the “B” World Series last summer, West’s freshmen group finished second in a field of 56.
The first hitter in the seventh was critical. Everyone knew No. 9 hitter Emily Wallace would bunt. She legged it out, anyway. Then it was time for Gay, who can really fly, to lay one down. She forced a hurried throw, which sailed past first. Graham’s soft bunt filled the bases.
Then, when a high pitch by Kathryn Julian glanced off the mitt of straining catcher Kristen Yost and caromed to the screen, Noe sent a sliding Wallace home to knot the game at 3-all. Jackie White’s bunt reloaded the sacks for a confident Dowdy.
“I wanted yard,” grinned Dowdy. “But inside, I was saying, ‘Just let me get a base hit.’ ”
She got it, whacking one into left to plate Gay and Graham for West’s first lead. Julian escaped further damage, but East had two runs to make up in its final at-bat.
Gay, who gave up only two hits over four innings, slammed the door. She yielded a one-out single to Sara Roland, but grabbed Yost’s hard bouncer for the second out, then ended the game on a routine fly by Alexander.
“Lindsey had that fire in her eyes,” said Noe. “They weren’t going to beat her.”
You could feel good for those West youngsters who celebrated like bear cubs in a crazy pile of joy in the East outfield.
But you had to feel badly for the Mustang seniors, especially Julian.
Hurling with a puffy, rainbow-colored left eye (she was hit by a throw just under the helmet several weeks ago) and a badly bruised wrist (she was recently plunked by a pitch), she allowed only three clean hits and didn’t surrender an earned run.
“I thought we played good, I thought we had ’em this time,” she said softly and sadly. “That last inning killed us.”
“Julian did a good job,” said Waddell. “But we beat ourselves. We just beat ourselves.”
Track Classic set for Saturday at North
BY ED DUPREE
State championship caliber teams and athletes will be competing in the North Rowan Track Classic, set Saturday at North’s Eagle Stadium.
Coach Robert Steele, meet director, said 28 boys teams and 26 girls teams are entered in the third annual event.
“This is the biggest field yet and the best,” said Steele, who coaches North’s perennially strong boys team. “Last year was better than the first year, and this year will be even better.”
Sumter, S.C., won the 2000 boys championship, while Western Guilford won the girls title. Host North Rowan swept both championships in 1999.
“There are a variety of great athletes. There are several kids in the sprints and hurdles that are nationally renowned,” said Steele.
One of those outstanding athletes, North All-American LaTasha Pharr, is not expected to compete because of a hamstring injury. The University of Alabama signee is one of the nation’s best in the 100-meter hurdles and triple jump and is also strong in the 300 hurdles and long jump.
Steele said Sumter’s boys, who won the 5A state title in South Carolina last year, will be back, along with Vance’s North Carolina 4A champs. North Rowan’s boys, a five-time state 2A champion, 3A power High Point Andrews and defending Rowan County champion West Rowan are other strong teams. West upset North for the county title last spring.
Top girls teams include North’s 1999 and 2000 state 2A champions, High Point Andrews and 1A state champion Burlington Cummings.
Salisbury’s girls and boys and East Rowan’s boys will compete.
Individually, Steele lists Robert Boulware and Juan Barrino of Vance; Jamaal Brand of High Point Andrews; Mike Hinton of Cummings; A.J. Davis of Northern Durham; David Boyce of Gastonia Ashbrook; and Phillip Stafford of Northwest Cabarrus as athletes to watch in the boys meet.
Boulware was a hurdles finalist in the National Indoor Championships. He’s headed to Tennessee on a football scholarship.
Barrino was the national indoor runner-up in the 60-meter dash. He ranks as one of the nation’s top five outdoor sprinters with a time of 10.3 in the 100.
Brand ran the third fastest time in the country in the indoor hurdles, and Cooper, Gattis and Hinton are all outstanding hurdlers.
Locally, Steele rates West Rowan’s Matt Smith (hurdles) and Horatio Everhart (sprints) and North’s Malachi Brown (sprints), Thomas Mashore (sprints) and Adrian Sloan (hurdles) as athletes to watch.
On the female side, R.J. Reynolds’ Bernadette Washington was an indoor state finalist in the sprints. The daughter of former North Rowan star athlete Billy Ray Washington, she’s being recruited by N.C. State and North Carolina.
Tempest Stark of Northwest Cabarrus is the indoor state champion in the 55 and 300 dashes.
North’s Garette Hunter is the defending 2A champion in the discus, and West’s Sherina Steele
The meet begins at 10 a.m. with field events and the 3200 relay. Preliminaries will get under way following the relay.
Finals are expected to start early in the afternoon.
Admission is $2.
The Speed Dynamics Track & Field Clinic, sponsored by the Rowan Express, will start the weekend activities at Eagle Stadium at 5 p.m. Friday.
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