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North Rowan beat Statesville 8-3 in Saturday’s Cliff Peeler Baseball Classic “Breakfast Club” game.
The Cavs and Greyhounds got rolling in their consolation game at 10 a.m., which means sleepy North Players were rolling out of bed at 7 and buses were rolling from Spencer toward Newman Park at 8:30.
No one dared to ask how early coach Brian Hightower’s Greyhounds (7-13) had to rise and shine in order to arrive in Salisbury on time for the national anthem.
“Heck, this was a lot earlier than I usually get to school,” yawned North center fielder Aaron Rimer.
Rimer’s a very good student, so he was kidding around, but it really was a challenge for either team to get revved up and clear the cobwebs.
“It was real early and it was real wet,” shrugged North coach Bill Kesler.
Kesler wasn’t kidding, either. The dew made a few folks pay some dues. A North baserunner and a Statesville fielder took wild pratfalls right off the bat. How bad was it? North (12-4) held a 2-1 lead after the first three runs of the game scored on errors.
But then Statesville’s Adam Wilhelm banged a long homer off North starter Phillip Goodman. That smash seemed to get the competitive juices flowing in both dugouts.
“Oh yeah,” said Kesler. “If you gotta play at 10, you sure don’t wanna lose.”
Trailing 3-2 in the fifth, North pieced together a six-run inning that decided the game. Rimer’s hustling infield hit started the uprising. Erik Mowery and Brandon Doby produced RBI doubles, Bubba Morris singled home a run and Statesville kicked in with three errors to help things along.
“We couldn’t get the sticks going for a long time,” said Kesler. “But once we did, we bunched the hits up pretty good. That was good to see.”
So was a comeback by North’s defense, which was shaky in Thursday’s first-round loss to West Rowan. The Cavs turned double plays in the second, fifth, sixth and seventh innings. If you’re counting, that’s four — a season high.
“The defense was much better,” said Kesler. “I thought Tad Ogg played a good third base and made some real nice plays.”
The Cavs also had no wild pitches or passed balls, the things that crippled them Thursday. The key was catcher Keith Cauble, badly bruised hand and all, returning to the lineup.
“Keith’s just got to live with the pain,” said Kesler.
Goodman is living with some pain, too. He hurt his back in a rec basketball game over the winter and his pitching availability is day to day.
“Phillip has his good days and his bad days with that back” said Kesler.
Goodman’s back was a bit stiff yesterday, but he battled for four decent innings to raise his record to 5-1. The five wins tie him for the county lead with West’s Jared Barnette.
Stephen Johnston relieved and whipped through those last three innings for the save with the aid of all those double plays.
And then the Cavs headed home — for some shuteye.
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NOTES:North plays Albemarle for 5th place at 1 on Monday. Fortunately, that’s 1 p.m., not a.m. ... Statesville plays in another 10 a.m. game Monday against Salisbury. That’s a battle for seventh. ... Doby banged out three hits, including two doubles. ... Goodman reported that he and Cauble, both experienced anglers, took Mowery along for his fishing debut on Friday. ... “Erik had really, really bad technique,” said Goodman, “but he improved once he took a few notes from me.” Mowery claims that he caught four fish, but apparently all were thrown back, so there’s no proof. ... “I can throw a fish a lot further than I can a baseball,” Mowery reported.
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