LANDIS — Tad Ogg and Jimbo Davis drove in half the runs in support of Steven Johnston’s strong pitching as North Rowan topped South Rowan 14-1 in non-conference baseball action at South on Monday night.
Ogg went 3-for-4 at the plate with his second home run of the season and five runs batted in. Davis took over the undisputed county home run lead with a towering shot to left-center, his fifth of the year. He had two RBIs.
Johnston, a junior right-hander, shut out the raiders through five innings and allowed an unearned run in the sixth while pitching four-hit ball over six innings. He struck out eight Raiders.
Davis, the second batter in the game, unloaded his long homer in the first inning, breaking a tie with West Rowan’s Jared Barnette for the county lead.
“That was about a homer and half there,” said coach BillKesler of North. “Somebody said it was in the football stadium. I don’t know if it got that far, but it was a long way. That was well over 400 feet. That one had a lot of air under it; it was gone.”
The victory for North (15-5 overall) came in a tuneup for tonight’s big 2A Central Carolina Conference contest at East Davidson (7 p.m.). The Cavaliers must beat the first-place Golden Eagles and Lexington on Thursday to share the CCC title.
“That’s the one we’ve been looking for for a week or two now,” said Kesler. North’s only league loss was by a score of 7-1 to East Davidson last month.
“We wanted to get a tuneup. This was a good one, I think, unless we wasted it all tonight. South’s got a good ball team. They had a couple of good wins in the Easter tournament,” said Kesler.
The North coach was pleased with Johnston’s mound performance.
“He’s pitched well for us every time out. We were hoping he could go four innings. He was going so easy and good that we just left him in there until we had that long inning in the top of the seventh,” said the North coach.
“He’s won every time out. He’s been a pleasant surprise for us. His breaking pitch is getting better, he’s getting more velocity and he throws strikes all the time.”
Johnston got hit in the stomach by a line drive off the bat of South’s Dan Hoffman in the first inning, but shook it off.
“I thought that might have hurt him, but he stayed right in there and they hit two more back to him,” pointed out Kesler. Johnston turned one of those hard grounders into a double play.
“I just felt comfortable.I felt loose,” said Johnston, who went six innings for the first time this season in his first year of varsity ball.
South also has a big game today with possible playoff implications. The Raiders host 4A Central Piedmont Conference rival Davie County at 7 p.m.
“They whipped us. We’ve got to hit the ball better than that,” said coach Linn Williams, whose Raiders got one extra-base hit, a bloop double by pinch-hitter Matt Ward.
“We didn’t play with much intensity tonight.Obviously, we’ve got to have more intensity tomorrow night (tonight), and I think we will,” said Williams.
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