MOCKSVILLE — Rowan County has climbed back into the driver’s seat in its American Legion playoff series with Mocksville.
The locals grabbed the wheel — along with a commanding three-games-to-one series lead — with a that’s-more-like-it 9-1 victory Friday night at Rich Park.
“They’ve got to do everything now,” said Rowan outfielder Aaron Rimer. “We can sit back and relax and play our game. We’re in control now.”
The win moved Rowan (27-3) within one victory of clinching the series and securing an Area III third-round berth. Game 5 is scheduled for 7:15 tonight at Newman Park.
“It’s big because now they have to beat us three times in a row to win,” smiled Jim Gantt, Rowan’s first-year head coach. “I like where we are.”
They are there largely because of give-me-the-ball winning pitcher Phillip Goodman. The righthander was more gritty than pretty, more Jeep than Jaguar, as he checked Mocksville (17-13) on six hits through eight innings. And though he issued six walks and was tagged for a fifth-inning home run by Casey Stanley, Goodman maintained a cool assuredness, like the kid who already knows what he’s getting for his birthday.
“This was a big confidence booster,” he said after winning his third game of the season. “If they had tied it up tonight, it would have been real tough for us to bounce back. But I wanted the ball and I wanted to go after them.”
Goodman did just that, but not until he adjusted to the plate umpire’s strike zone. “He got the ball up a little bit early and (the umpire) just wasn’t gonna call the high strike,” said Gantt. “So he adjusted and pitched a fine game. He just needed to find out what the strike zone was.”
His teammates gave him plenty of support — once they adjusted to losing pitcher Cody Wright. The tall righthander used both a darting fastball and a 12-to-6 curve to retire the first nine Rowan batters, including seven on groundouts.
But in the top of the fourth inning Wright went wrong. He yielded five runs on four hits as Rowan batted around and chased him from the game.
“He went out very strong,” said Mocksville coach Mike Lovelace, “and then made some bad pitches. It started with a hit and then a walk and then a steal.”
The instigator was leadoff batter Cal Hayes, who drilled a single up the middle and promptly stole second base on a pitchout. Teammates Rimer and Spencer Steedley followed with walks before Jimbo Davis and Nick Lefko delivered run-scoring base hits.
“We just swung at good pitches,” Davis said after contributing two hits and two RBIs. “Before you knew it we were on a roll.”
Rowan extended its lead when Shawn Trosper grounded a two-out, two-run single between right-side infielders Ricky Bentley and Eric Walker. The inning’s fifth run cross when Wright was called for a balk.
“It all started with Cal,” said Gantt. “When he’s on base it puts a lot of pressure on the pitcher and the defense. I think our other batters benefit from his speed. If they think he may run, they’ll throw more fastballs or pitch out, which gives us better hitting counts.”
Rowan added a pair of unearned runs against relief pitcher Travis Allen in the fifth. When Stanley launched his team-high sixth home run, Mocksville had cut its deficit to 7-1. It stayed that way until the seventh when Rimer cracked a two-run homer over the KFC sign in right-center field.
“When I hit it I thought it was a double,” he said. “Then I thought maybe I’d go for three and that’s when I stumbled going around first base. When the umpire told me it was a home run, that was a big relief.”
So was the one-sided victory. “It’s been a while since we got one like this,” Rimer said. “This is the type of game we like to play. Nobody likes them close. Everybody likes to win big once in a while.”
n
NOTES: The game, much like the series, was not without controversy. It came with one out and two runners on base in the Rowan eighth. Hayes slashed a hit off third-baseman Stanley’s glove that skipped into the bullpen area, where infielder Cory Ruff — preparing to enter the game the next inning — inadvertently fielded the ball. Following a 20-minute discussion, the umpires ruled Hayes was out due to interference but allowed both runners to advance one base. “It was interesting,” was all Gantt would reveal.
n
Contact David Shaw at 704-797-4259 or sports@salisburypost.com
.
Today's News
