BY ED DUPREE
SALISBURY POST

If South Rowan’s Raiders wanted respect, they’ve definitely earned it in the Cliff Peeler Baseball Classic.

The underdog Raiders, 5-10 coming into the holiday tournament, stunned red-hot East Rowan 8-7 in the semifinals at Newman Park on Saturday.

Coach Linn Williams’ South club (7-10) will take on 4A Central Piedmont Conference rival Davie County (15-3) in Monday’s 7 p.m. championship contest.

South is bidding for its second tournament championship. The Raiders’ only title came in 1996.

“We needed to beat a good team. Taking nothing away from the other teams we beat this year, but we needed to beat somebody with a reputation like East Rowan. That will give these guys some confidence,” said Williams.

East (10-7) had won five in a row and eight of its last nine before falling to the Raiders.

“We’ve got three conference games left that we need to win in order to have a chance really for the playoffs. I think this will springboard us into those conference games,” the South coach added.

South is 2-3 and in fourth place in the CPC. Davie, which beat West Rowan 6-2 in Saturday’s other semifinal game, shares the CPC lead with Mount Tabor at 3-1.

“Davie County’s a conference opponent. It doesn’t count in the conference, but we’d like to win it,” said Williams of the championship match-up. “Davie’s a good team. They’re playing well. We’re going to have to play a good game to beat them.”

Davie edged South 6-4 in a CPC contest earlier this month.

South, which led from the second inning on, scored its runs in three different innings, and Greg Deal played a role in each inning. The senior second baseman went 3-for-4 with two runs batted in. He grounded out in the first inning, but advanced Ronnie Shore to second, helping set up the Raiders’ first run. Deal’s solid single to right drove in two of South’s four runs in the second. His hit-and-run single in the fifth was the big hit in a three-run fifth. He added another single in his final at-bat.

“Greg has come a long way. He is really doing a great job for us right now,” said Williams. “He’s playing great defense. He’s doing everything with the bat we need.”

Deal, 4-for-8 (.500 average) in the tournament, said, “We knew we had to come out and do our job tonight. Coach has been telling me that’s why he put No. 2 and Shore first. Shore’s usually on and he’d like to advance the runner up. Against a team like this, you’ve got to make the plays like that. I was just hyped, ready to play tonight.”

Deal said his hitting has been “off and on” this season.

“I’m starting to pick it back up now. I’m a senior and this is my last year. This is my last year. I’ve got to enjoy it while I can,” he said.

While Deal and William Van Wieren (2-for-4 with two RBIs) led South’s seven-hit attack, sophomores Mike Davis and Jared Wingler did the job on the mound.

Davis (2-0) got the victory, going 5 2/3 innings, yielding nine hits against a Mustang team that’s been hitting well lately. The right-hander didn’t walk a batter until the sixth, when he was replaced by Wingler.

The biggest play of the night might have occurred when Wingler took the mound protecting an 8-5 lead and faced East leadoff hitter Cal Hayes Jr. with two runners on base. Hayes, 3-for-3 prior to that at-bat, lined a shot to right field, but it was right at Chase Goodale for the final out of the inning.

Wingler yielded two unearned runs in the seventh, but got the save when he and first baseman Dan Hoffmann caught East’s Mark Misenheimer in a rundown for the last out.

Wingler, with runners at first and third and two outs, had faked a throw to third before catching Misenheimer off base. Spencer Steedley scored East’s final run before the out occurred.

“Misenheimer got some big hits for us (3-for-4 with a triple),” said East coach Jeff Safrit. “That’s not why we lost the ballgame,” he said of the rundown. “That was an aggressive mistake, and he hadn’t been in that situation many times.”

Safrit said, “South was hungry. They definitely outplayed us in every facet of the game. South was ready to play, and we weren’t.”

The loss reminded Safrit of his team’s 0-5 start.

“That’s the way it was in March, exactly. We hit some balls hard right at people. We had opportunities again. We had chances to win the ballgame, and we didn’t do it,” he said.

“South wanted it more than we did, and congratulations to them,” Safrit added.

Hayes, Misenheimer and Drew Davis (2-for-3 with two RBIs) accounted for eight of East’s 10 hits.

The Mustangs will take on 3A South Piedmont Conference rival West Rowan (12-7) at 4 p.m. Monday in the third-place game.