Rain offers help for South Rowan, Concord

CONCORD — It’s hard to say whether it’s South Rowan or Concord that was helped most by the storm that postponed Wednesday’s Game 3.

Obviously, the rainout provided Concord with an extra day to regroup and patch together a reeling pitching staff that South’s already ravaged for 27 runs.

But the delay also gave South a chance to heal up its banged-up outfield. Two mainstays — leftfielder Matt Morgan and rightfielder Raymondo Brady — would not have been in the lineup on Wednesday.

Brady, tied for the team lead with Greg Deal with a .358 batting average, has a pulled quadriceps muscle. Morgan, who leads the team in hits (37) and runs (25) is sidelined with a groin strain.

Since South has no outfield backups on its 18-man playoff roster, pitchers Brandon Hiatt and Andrew Morgan, both of whom played outfield for their high school teams, would have gotten the starting call.

A NEW YORK? Wednesday’s rain just about guarantees South will see at least one more start from Concord’s main man, Brian York, who lost Game 2.

It’s not certain how quickly Concord coach Josh Stamey will go back to his No. 2 starter, Todd Greene, who threw an astounding number of pitches in the series opener. Greene, who went all nine innings, faced 50 batters, walking three and fanning seven. No one seems to know the exact count for sure, but If Greene averaged just four pitches per batter, he tossed 200 pitches.

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LIKE OLD TIMES:South assistant David Caldwell is no stranger to Webb Field, home of the Concord Legion team.

Caldwell, a Northwest Cabarrus High grad, played American Legion ball for Concord from 1972-74, a period in which Kannapolis didn’t field a team.

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MORE CALDWELL:Caldwell likens South’s current run to a college basketball team peaking at tournament time.

“We asked the guys who wins the ACC Tournament every year,” said Caldwell. “Some yelled out ‘Duke’ and some yelled out ‘Carolina.’

“But we said, ‘No. It’s whoever gets hot at the right time and plays their best ball down the stretch.’ ”

Makes sense. But there’s one thing Caldwell didn’t mention. Absolutely no one at all yelled out his alma mater, Clemson, when asked to name ACC Tournament winners.

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MORGAN GRINDER:Andrew Morgan’s already broken the South season record for strikeouts. The previous mark was 55 by Daniel Overby in 1998. Morgan’s got 61.

Morgan also has a great chance to beat Overby’s 1997 single-season ERA mark of 3.76 . Morgan checks in at 3.12 after a super start vs. Concord in Game 1.

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RAW DEAL:South’s Deal has been hot since moving to the No. 3 spot in the lineup. He’s 10-for-22 (.455) in his last five games. He has seven RBIs in that span, which matches his RBI output in South’s first 24 games.

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TURN OF EVENTS: The Kannapolis Legion team has to be wondering what the heck’s going on after watching Concord struggle twice against South. Concord played like world-beaters in a first-round, 4-1 wipeout of Kannapolis, holding the K-Towners to 17 runs in five games.

Kannapolis actually posted a 7-1 regular-season mark against the four Area III South teams that are still playing. It swept Mocksville, South and Concord and split with Rowan.

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LET’S PLAY NINE:Mocksville coach Mike Lovelace says in order to beat Rowan his team has to play nine innings.

“We haven’t done that yet,” he said after Tuesday’s painful loss threw Mocksville in a 2-0 hole. “We played eight innings the first game, maybe four or five innings in Game 2.”

Lovelace was not pleased with the way his team swung the bats in the middle frames of Game 2. Mocksville didn’t get a hit from the third through the sixth against Rowan starter Brandon Doby, then failed to hit safely against reliever Daniel Cauble in the seventh.

Mocksville got its bats revived in the eighth, but a comeback bid fell a run short.

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WALKING THE WALK: Mocksville starting pitcher Erik Walker was scary in the early going in Game 2, giving Rowan fans a pretty good idea how he fanned 16 batters in a game three weeks ago.

“All Walker’s pitches were good,” said Rowan’s Jimbo Davis. “Changeup, curve, fastball. Everything.”

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IT PHIL’S SO GOOD: Phillip Goodman came through again for Rowan in its Game 2 victory, notching his team-leading third save.

Goodman, who will probably start Game 4, would have thrown a bit anyway on Tuesday, and had been told he’d have the ninth inning if a tight situation arose. It did. Cauble got in trouble in the eighth and Goodman grabbed the ball a little earlier than he’d figured.

The trouble actually got worse before it got better, after two errors from unlikely sources — catcher Drew Davis and shortstop Cal Hayes Jr. But Goodman rescued Rowan from a real quagmire.

A lot of people forgot about Goodman when he missed a good chunk of the regular season with a calf injury, but no one with a bat has done much of anything against him all year — in Legion or high school.

Goodman’s 2.05 ERA leads Rowan and he’s gone 8-1 on the mound in 2001 between North Rowan High and Legion.

Goodman hasn’t lost a ballgame since Feb. 28. His one defeat came on opening day of the high school campaign against West Rowan.

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LINEUP SWITCH:In the last two games, Gantt’s moved Nick Lefko up to the No. 2 spot in the order, while bumping Aaron Rimer from No. 2 to No. 5.

While both players run well and are good at taking pitches so that leadoff man Hayes gets a chance to steal, the move could help Rimer get back in the groove at the plate. Rimer still leads the team in RBIs (37), but he’s hit a little funk in the playoffs, going 5-for-28 in his last half-dozen games. Rimer hasn’t had a multi-hit game in that stretch, but figures to snap back. He batted over .500 in high school at North.

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STEAMING STEEDLEY:While Rimer’s hit a slow spell, Spencer Steedley’s been an automatic line drive lately.

A 10-for-22 binge has the East Rowan youngster hitting .408, with 31 RBIs in just 72 at-bats.

Steedley had the game-winning hit in Game 1 of the Mocksville series and put Rowan ahead to stay with another big knock in Game 2. Throw in Steedley’s 5-1 mound record and he’s been as huge as anyone in Rowan’s 26-2 summer.

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WEATHER MAN: University of South Carolina head baseball coach Ray Tanner called yesterday morning for directions to Newman Park, Wednesday night’s game-time and the local weather forecast.

Tanner was told the sky looked okay, but, of course, that was before noon. Hopefully, Tanner checked out the Weather Channel before he jumped in the car and headed north.

While Rowan boasts a host of potential college players, Tanner didn’t deny that seeing a certain shortstop was the primary reason for his proposed voyage from Columbia to Salisbury.

“Yes, I can confirm our recruitment of Cal (Hayes),” chuckled Tanner. “But every other school can do that for you, too. Everyone’s recruiting him.”

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MORE RECRUITING: Julian Sides, father of the undefeated Rowan left-hander with the same name, offered his own recruiting tale.

When the phone rang at the Sides household earlier this week, the older Sides answered, determined the call was for his son and yelled, “It’s someone who wants to recruit you!”

The junior Julian hastened to the phone but was a little disappointed at the offer he received.

On the other end of the line was the United States Marine Corp.

Not to worry, though. Sides will be hearing from a few colleges, too.

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Contact Mike London at 704-797-4259 or mlondon@salisburypost.com .