The South Rowan American Legion baseball team pounded out nine hits, capitalized on four errors and scored 11 times in the seventh inning to pull off a come-from-behind 14-6 victory Tuesday night. After blasting Concord 13-2 in the first game of the playoff series, South owns a 2-0 lead in the best-of-7 second-round affair.

“I told the coaches that this was probably the funnest inning I’ve ever had,”South head coach Allen Wilson said. “There were a lot of things we were able to do — fake squeezes, executing when the squeeze was on … . It was fun.”

That depended on what side of the field your dugout was on, of course. Last night’s fireworks proved especially big for South because they came at the expense of Concord ace Brian York.

South (14-15) trailed 6-3 entering the seventh when Concord (12-14) collapsed. Despite pitching with the lead, York struggled with his control and his emotions at times. While he struck out eight South batters, he also walked six and threw a half-dozen wild pitches. South fed off those signs of wildness and its three-run outburst in the fifth inning as proof positive that York was beatable.

“With York on the mound you think low-scoring game,”South third baseman Greg Deal said. “But just because you hear the name ‘Brian York,’ that doesn’t mean he’s going to beat you.”

Matt Morgan opened the seventh with a walk and Deal followed with a high chopper up the middle — on a 3-2 count after fouling off several tough pitches — that went for an infield single. Aaron Safrit followed with the biggest blow, a triple deep to right field to make it 6-5.

Concord head coach Josh Stamey quickly headed for the mound to calm his ace, but when Jeremy Alderman trotted down to first after a couple of close pitches, York’s night was over. He headed for the dugout and tossed the ball to Stamey almost before the coach crossed the third-base line on his second visit. And he cast several withering glares in the direction of the home plate umpire as he headed off the field.

John Killian got to take part in South’s fun next. With Safrit feinting from third, then finally going, Adam Cornelius laid down a perfect suicide squeeze to tie the game — and reach first safely. Alderman scored on Brad Matthews’ soft single to center, and an over-throw to third plated Cornelius for an 8-6 edge.

Andrew Morgan reached out to score another run when he laid down a suicide despite the high, outside offering on the play. Ronnie Shore, the ninth batter of the inning, followed with a soft single to center and Matt Morgan’s routine grounder to short hopped right over Brandon White.

Deal followed with a grounder to second that got through for a 10-6 lead, and two errors on Alderman’s grounder extended it to 12-6. Cornelius drilled a two-run single for the final scoring — but only thanks to a close play at the plate when he appeared to come across safely with the 15th run but was called out.

“Confidence,”Deal said. “That’s the big thing. We have confidence in ourselves, Coach has confidence in us to try things like fake steals and squeezes. You can’t get down in your head when you get down a run.”

Wilson credited assistant coach David Caldwell with a lot of that new confidence, as extra work before and after practices has been paying huge dividends during the postseason.

Of South’s 13 hits, only Safrit’s triple went for extra bases. Concord, meanwhile, rapped out 14 hits, including eight in the first four innings against starter Nick Mayle. He left in the fourth trailing 4-0, but Brandon Hiatt came on and kept it close.

South turned two nice double plays in the middle innings and Concord’s only damage came in the top of the seventh when White lined a homer and Josh Benton stroked an RBI double.

“Brandon came in and stopped the bleeding,”Wilson said. “That’s all you want a middle reliever to do, come in and give you a chance.”

Now, South has a chance to pull off a sweep thanks to the win against York. The trip to Concord means no fireworks from the Intimidators in the distance, but South may still be in a festive, explosive mood.

“We’ve got the momentum, but we’ve got to be able to capitalize on that,”Wilson said. “We’ve got to still be at the top of our game.”

n