LANDIS — It was at least as much an opening daze as an opening day for prep baseball, but South Rowan coach Linn Williams was smiling after an 8-5 comeback win over A.L.Brown in his Raider head coaching debut.
“Hey, we’re 1-0, and that’s where we wanted to be,” said Williams.
Williams’ opening act was highly successful, but also highly stressful for the Davidson graduate, who last was a head coach at Mount Pleasant. Williams’ squad had the expected opening day jitters, and then some. The Raiders missed signs, turned fly balls into DisneyWorld rides and botched a rundown to present the Wonders with a gift-wrapped 5-0 lead.
But the Raiders somehow overcame all those crazy misdeeds, turned the momentum when the Wonders made their own miscues, then held on to beat their down-the-road rivals.
“We showed some character,” said Williams. “We never stopped scrapping.”
“I don’t think South makes a run at us if we just make the routine plays,” sighed disappointed Wonder coach Empsy Thompson. “But you gotta tip your hat to South. They could have quit, but didn’t. They showed they’re a gritty team.”
South starter Jared Wingler had a six-walk day that didn’t make for a pretty boxscore, but did what he needed to do to win. He shut down Brown while his teammates rallied, then gave way to Tim Cook, who got the final two pressure-packed outs, leaving the bases full of Wonders.
The Wonders looked to have things under control at 5-0 after piecing together a four-run third in which the only solid hit off Wingler was Matt Harris’ single.
South’s third inning was the turning point. With two on and one out, Greg Deal lashed a hit to left. Williams waved for Craig Haas, the runner at second, to try to score, but Haas jammed on the brakes shortly after rounding third. That turned into a disaster when Wingler, running from first, showed up at third. Haas broke for the plate but was an easy out.
That could have been the death blow for South, which had every reason to be deflated. But the next batter, Ronnie Shore delivered a two-out single to score Wingler and the Raiders were on the board. Then South got a break. No one had a play on William Van Wieren’s topped roller to the left side and Deal scored to make it 5-2.
“That inning got us back in it,” said Williams. “We didn’t hit it hard, but some balls found nice places to land.”
“We just didn’t put them away, didn’t stop them when we could have,” said Thompson. “We relaxed a little bit with the lead and they kept fighting.”
South’s Chase Goodale led off the fourth with a shot to the box that was caught by Wonder pitcher Andrew Petty, but the liner got him on the arm. Three batters later — a single, walk and error to load the bases — Petty had moved to shortstop and Drew Maher was on the hill.
Two bouncers — one booted, one for an out at first— produced runs to make it 5-4. With second and third and two outs, Thompson elected to intentionally walk Shore. The move failed to pay off — by inches — when Van Wieren blooper to right narrowly eluded diving first baseman Daniel Smith’s glove. Two scored and the Raiders were ahead 6-5. Cook followed with a single to make it 7-5.
Shore’s sharp single drove in an insurance run in the fifth and would have plated two had Wonder right fielder Josh Lee not thrown a one-hop completion to catcher Thumper Williams to cut down Andrew Morgan at home.
A recharged Wingler protected the lead with hitless ball in the fifth and sixth. Wingler got a big strikeout of Lee in the seventh, but a walk and a dropped fly got him in trouble. That’s when Williams and pitching coach Thad Chrismon called on Cook to finish the job.
Cook fanned John Graham, but hit Petty to load the sacks. With the tying runs on, Cook retired Zach Ward on a comebacker to make both Williams and Wingler 1-0.
“We’ve got a lot to work on,” said Wingler, “but this was a big confidence boost. This team has a feeling that it can do it. We told some people who we are today.”
n
NOTES:Neither team has time to dwell on Monday’s wild game. South battles county rival West today, while the Wonders open conference play at Sun Valley. Cook will start for South, while Graham gets the nod for the Wonders.
Today's News