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Salisbury did most everything it wanted to do on Saturday afternoon at Newman Park— except win.
The Hornets banged out 13 hits, played sound defense and got a complete-game pitching effort from Tommy Ludwig. They still lost to Albemarle 10-9 in a Cliff Peeler Baseball Classic consolation contest that everyone was calling the most exciting game of the tournament. Well, at least until South Rowan shocked East Rowan late Saturday night.
Down 5-0, the Hornets rallied to tie. Down 7-5, the Hornets came back to tie a second time. Down 10-7, the Hornets closed to within 10-9. It wasn’t over until Jason Wallace’s grounder was gobbled up by second baseman Will Harrington, stranding the tying and go-ahead runs.
Salisbury’s record is 2-13, but it’s not a bad team. Bad teams quit. This one clearly doesn’t.
“No, these kids don’t quit,” said first-year coach Scott Maddox. “I’ll give them that. And that’s progress.”
The Hornets have had a few surprising moral victories in recent days — a 4-2 loss to a good Ledford team and a 6-3 setback to East Davidson, which is ranked eighth in the latest 2A poll. This time the Hornets were on the verge of claiming a very real “W” against the Bulldogs (9-5), whose pitching staff was running on fumes.
Maddox said the heartbreaking defeat boiled down to a two bad throws on Bulldog bunts and the Hornets’ failure to put together a big inning in the fifth when they had the bases loaded and no outs.
“We got just one run out of that,” said Maddox. “We had to do more.”
Salisbury got three solid hits each from Barry Medinger, Marlo Rary and Ludwig. Medinger had the biggest one, a clutch two-run single in the sixth that gave Salisbury that 7-all tie and had its small, but enthusiastic following, roaring.
But coach Gary Weiker’s Bulldogs, who are second in the 1A Yadkin Valley Conference, refused to wilt in the face of those repeated Hornet comebacks.
“Albemarle is a good team,” said Maddox. “A real good team. Tommy pitched well, but they just kept right on hitting.”
“We knew Salisbury would score some runs today — figured we’d have to outscore them with the shape our pitching was in,” said Weiker, a Catawba grad. “But we sure aren’t complaining. You take wins any way you can get them.”
Salisbury lost its sixth in a row, but continues to win new admirers. Several fans came up to Maddox after the game to tell him how much his squad had improved, how amazed — and how proud — they were of what they saw on the field.
But, right now, Maddox would trade a thousand congratulations and a thousand pretty losses for just one ugly win.
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NOTES:Ludwig (0-5) gave up 10 runs, seven earned, but pitched a lot better than that sounds. Ludwig knew he was in for the duration, because Maddox had no bullpen help to offer. ... Salisbury plays Statesville for seventh at 10 a.m. on Monday, while Albemarle tangles with North for fifth place at 1.
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