GARNER— If you want something done right, might as well take care of it
yourself.
Wilmington’s Darryl Lawhorn needed a little bit of
help Thursday afternoon, but not much. He pitched a four-hitter, crashed two
home runs and was THEstory of Post 10’s 5-2 victory over Rowan County in the
American Legion Baseball State Tournament.
“He had a great day for us. It was a great
individual effort,”Wilmington head coach Keith Moore said. “He’s been that
type of player all year.”
Lawhorn won’t get to bat next year. He’ll
concentrate solely on pitching at East Carolina University and leave the hitting
in others’ hands.
That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but Lawhorn
proved to Rowan County he was equally lethal on offense and defense.
After retiring the side on seven pitches in the top
of the first, Lawhorn stepped to the plate with two outs in the bottom half and
pulled a Julian Sides offering over the right-field fence for a 1-0 lead.
He then returned to the mound and went back to work.
The first 10 Rowan batters failed to reach base before Drew Davis lined a double
with one out in the fourth inning.
Lawhorn stranded Davis there, then pitched around an
error in the fifth inning. The tall, thin right-hander had thrown just 43
pitches heading into the sixth.
“I wanted to go inside a lot, but my ball kept
running, tailing outside,”Lawhorn said. “I went high, low, mixed it up. I
just tried to stay within myself and the team.”
Rowan finally got to Lawhorn a little bit in the
later innings. CalHayes Jr. walked and manufactured a run in the sixth, and
Jimbo Davis singled to lead off the seventh but was stranded.
In the eighth, Bobby Parnell legged out an infield
single and Cory Ruff walked to set the stage for the top of the order. After a
Hayes sacrifice, Drew Davis launched a sac fly to bring Rowan within a run at
3-2, but Lawhorn struck out Spencer Steedley to end the threat.
“It looked like he was getting a little tired. He
was getting the ball up,”Rowan head coach Jim Gantt said. “We had the right
people up in the right situations.”
Instead of clinging to its one-run edge, Wilmington
took aim at a few insurance runs in the bottom of the eighth. After Sides struck
out the leadoff batter, Nick Strickland reached on a bloop single and Lawhorn
stepped to the plate. He drilled the first pitch he saw high and deep to
right-center for a 5-2 lead.
“He struggled a little bit late but he helped
himself out with some runs,”Moore said. “That was big. Going into the last
inning with a one-run lead is not very comforting.”
Lawhorn nailed down the win in the ninth to improve
to 11-0 this summer. His miniscule earned run average of 0.56 may actually have
risen a hundredth or so after allowing one earned run, but the biggest numbers
were three hits, three runs and three RBIs in four at-bats.
“Usually when I’m pitching I come out swinging
the bat good,”Lawhorn said. “I try to produce runs so I can stay on top.”
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Contact Steve Hanf at 704-797-4287 or shanf@salisburypost.com
.
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