No doubt about it, the Cliff Peeler Baseball Classic at Newman Park is providing the West Rowan Falcons with a welcome break from the dog-eat-dog South Piedmont Conference grind.
But don’t get the idea that the Falcons, who beat North Rowan 9-4 Thursday night, are visiting Newman Park just to eat popcorn, work on their tans and show off their cool haircuts. While the tourney co-favorites have to be red-hot East Rowan (9-6) and 10th-ranked 4A squad, Davie County (14-3), the Falcons will tell you that they’re in it to win it. They’re here to strike fear.
“We’re gonna have fun in this tournament, because playing baseball is what we love to do,” said Falcon catcher Ben Hampton. “But we’re also here to win. There aren’t many baseball banners hanging in our gym.”
“We can’t win our conference,” added West coach Chris Cauble. “Central (Cabarrus) has put that away. But one of our goals before the season was to win a championship. Here’s a chance to do that.”
West took a step toward seizing one of those hard-to-get banners with its first-round win. The 3A Falcons (12-6) will tangle with Davie on Saturday at 4 p.m. in the semifinals.
West kept some strong trends rolling against the 2A Cavaliers (11-4). The Falcons are 5-0 in nonconference games, 6-1 in county games. They’re also 3-0 against the Cavs since Cauble took the reins prior to the 2000 season.
North coach Bill Kesler was handicapped from the get-go. His first-string catcher, Keith Cauble, has a badly bruised hand, which makes it impossible for him to swing a bat and extremely painful to catch.
Kesler went with emergency backup Jason Barber, who’s still learning the position. It wasn’t anyone’s fault, but the results were disastrous. North’s batterymen were charged with a combination of nine wild pitches and passed balls. There was one catcher’s interference call that led to a run and the Falcons easily pilfered four bases.
“We went into this one banged up and some inexperience showed,” sighed Kesler. “Jason could handle most pitchers, but he wasn’t ready for (Brandon) Doby.”
Doby’s pitches really move and many of them were moving all the way back to the screen. That delighted the swift Falcons, who romped around the bases.
“Brandon started out throwing it pretty good. Then he got frustrated and started walking ’em, hitting ’em,” said Kesler. “And then we helped move them around. Seems like all those walks scored.”
Kesler was right. In the first three innings, the Falcons managed just two hits, yet led 3-0.
Then, in the fourth, West got its bats going. Ryan Schenk and Shawn Trosper produced singles around an error and Matt Morgan’s triple and just like that the Falcons owned a 6-0 lead. By then, Doby (4-3) had been replaced by Aaron Corby, who made his mound debut.
It was 7-0 before North made any commotion against West starter John Brooks (4-2), who delivered his second straight solid outing. North got its four runs in the fifth. Doby started things with a hit. A walk and two errors set the table for a long homer by Aaron Rimer, his second blast in as many days. The junior slugger added a double, single and walk and is smoking the horsehide at a scary .525.
“Rimer wasn’t just hot tonight, he’s been hot all year,” said Kesler.
West, on the other hand, didn’t hit at all this season for long stretches, but those woes may be in the past. The Falcons whacked out 9 hits. Morgan had a pair of knocks, which was no surprise. But Cauble also got two hits and two RBIs each from Hampton and Ryan Schenk.
Those were big pluses. Schenk’s been fighting a slump almost from Opening Day. Hampton hasn’t hit like he can.
“We’ve all taken a bunch of extra hitting,” said Morgan. “We’re working hard. After practice — on Sundays.”
In the sixth, Hampton, a lefty swinger, had the game’s most memorable hit. Big Ben kept his weight back and clocked a pitch over the scoreboard in left to make it 8-4.
“Ben’s homer was big in the sense that it stopped North’s momentum (from that four-run inning),” said Cauble. “They’d gotten right back in it.”
But never all the way back. A weary Brooks turned things over to Cory Ruff in the seventh. With the aid of a North baserunning miscue, Ruff survived two walks.
And now, for the first time in quite some time, West is a part of the winners bracket.
None of the veteran Falcons have forgotten last season’s brief Easter appearance. West played a marathon SPC game the night before the tourney began, then reported for a 10 a.m. Peeler game against South. The Raiders killed the sleepwalking Falcons 12-1. It was the low point of Cauble’s first season.
“We got up that a.m. and there was nothing there,” said Hampton.
But this time the Falcons are rested and ready.
“The championship’s our goal,” said Morgan. “This is our chance to do it.”
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NOTES:North’s in a 10 a.m. losers bracket game Saturday against the loser of Friday’s South-Statesville contest. ... West scored in every inning for the first time. “That shows we stayed focused,” Cauble said.
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