Chances are good that 20 years from now Boo Blount won’t remember his senior year at Salisbury High as a time when he came out on the short end in athletic contests an amazing 40 times.
Most likely, Blount will think only about the afternoon of April 26, 2001. That one shining moment should serve as a perfect pair of windshield wipers to cleanse away the memory of all those defeats — 14 in baseball, 18 in basketball, eight in football.
Blount beamed the smile of the year deep in the home dugout following the Hornets’ 7-0 and 12-2 2A Central Carolina Conference doubleheader wipeout of High Point Central on Thursday. After his postgame press conference, a surprised Blount emerged to a standing ovation from a few dozen faithful Hornet supporters.
He deserved it, if anyone ever has.
Blount pitched both games — all 11 innings of Thursday’s twin bill — as the Hornets (4-14, 4-7) doubled their season win total in one swoop. Blount’s amazing encore in the second game? Some called it deja-Boo.
Blount yielded seven hits over two games, walked just three. He fanned 15 on a hard day’s night that began in bright sunshine and ended with evening’s chill descending on historic Newman Park.
“Coach (Scott) Maddox and me had talked about me pitching both games,” said Blount. “I really wanted to do it. I wanted the challenge. I was going to leave my arm out there today.
“I feel good,” he added, massaging his weary right appendage. “I don’t think I’ve ever felt better.”
Blount put the capper on his delightful day by launching a three-run homer to break open the nightcap. It was the Hornets’ first homer of the season — a soaring blast that carried well over the Wallace Realty sign in left field.
“ I saw (East Rowan star) Cal (Hayes) sitting in the stands,” explained Blount. “That made me try a little harder. It felt good as soon as it came off the bat. I thought it might go.”
“Ah, tell ’em what really happened,” interjected Maddox.
“Coach gave me the home run sign,” grinned Blount.
Few expected the Hornets to be able to smile this late in the season.
When Maddox, who was coaching Little Leaguers last summer, took the reins of the Hornet varsity in February, he went into the job with eyes wide open. He’d heard all the jokes around town about his players — or lack, thereof. The players? They’d already heard all the jokes about their “Little League” coach.
Turns out, both Maddox and the Hornets did OK.
When Maddox took talent inventory, he looked for positives. He had kids like Daniel Wallace and Barry Medinger who could hit. He had senior Jason Wallace, who had enough speed to lead off. The obvious problem was pitchers and catchers. Blount was the only guy with meaningful mound experience.
Catchers? Blount was also the only guy with any experience there. And it was going to be tough for him to pitch and catch at the same time. Maddox’s solution was to create a catcher. He took his best athlete, Tommy Ludwig, and began from scratch: “This is the mask. These are the shinguards.”
The first game Ludwig was supposed to catch, Maddox found the kid hiding behind the dugout at North Stanly.
“I can’t do this,” moaned Ludwig.
Maddox demanded that he give it a shot.
Seconds later, Blount’s first pitch sailed right through Ludwig and hit the fence. Ludwig shrugged helplessly and looked at Maddox,
Maddox didn’t let him off the hook. “Try for real,” he said.
Two innings later, Ludwig came to Maddox and said, “This is fun. Thanks for making me do it.”
Finding someone who could catch when Blount pitched, gave the Hornets hope. They took that game at North Stanly for win No. 1. They were in the hunt with mighty East Davidson. They had a good Ledford team on the ropes.
There were bad times, too. Maddox wore his team out verbally after the guys didn’t give their best effort at Davie County. There was that disheartening loss to Concord, a game the Hornets were actually supposed to win. There was that 25-2 loss at South Rowan. That 18-0 shellacking at the hands of rival North Rowan.
But the Hornets kept coming back for more. And Maddox kept coming to practice with a smile and a joke.
“He never got down — or down on us,” said sophomore shortstop Richard Dailey.
And the players never got down on Maddox. Even when he wore green socks to practice.
“I’m not the be-all coach,” said Maddox. “I told the guys we had to build a program and it wasn’t going to happen in one year. We were playing three teams ranked in the state (Davie, North, East Davidson). I just wanted the guys to have fun, learn to play the game. Our success wasn’t going to be measured in wins or losses. It was going to be measured in how much better we got.”
The Hornets improved enough that they head into tonight’s game at Lexington with a chance for three in a row. A win would give Salisbury fourth place and that would mean a first-round home game in the CCC Tournament on Monday. That, in turn, would give Blount a chance to take the hill one last time in Newman Park.
“Most people picked us on the bottom and we’re definitely not going to be there,” said Maddox. “You have to start somewhere. Fourth place is something you can build on.”
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