BY DAVID SHAW
SALISBURY POST

LANDIS — It’s too soon for South Rowan’s American Legion baseball team to abandon ship, but it may want to grab some buckets.

Post 185/146 is taking on water after bowing 9-3 to visiting Asheboro Wednesday night and falling behind, two games to none, in the Area III semifinals.

“We’ve got our work cut out for us,” coach Allen Wilson said after South (16-17) steered itself halfway down the exit ramp out of the playoffs. “What we’ve got to do is go back to playing baseball the way we’ve been playing it the last two or three weeks.”

Forgive Wilson for not recognizing his team in this third-round series. South committed four more errors last night — giving it nine in two games — and fanned 11 times against winning pitcher Michael Stefanacci, giving Asheboro pitchers 26 strikeouts in the last 18 innings.

“We came out dead tonight,” said infielder Ronnie Shore. “There was no intensity whatsoever. You know what this looked like? It looked like old South Rowan. I hope it doesn’t happen again.”

South needs to do the Hokey-Pokey and turn itself around — immediately. Its season remains both overcooked and underdone, and tonight’s Game 3 at McCrary Park looms as the summer’s largest. “This next game is the most important one for us,” said Wilson. “We have to win.”

To do that, South will have to scrap its juggling act in the field and find a way to make contact more often. Against Stefanacci, a hefty right-hander headed for Brown University as a lineman, South was deceived by an assortment of curveballs, changeups and alternating-speed fastballs.

“That’s what he does,” said Asheboro catcher Brent Cole. “He mixes it up. He keeps you guessing. And he’s very strong. He’s more athletic than he looks.”

Looks didn’t matter as Stefanacci (5-1) limited South to six hits and retired 11 of 12 batters between the fifth and eighth innings. He walked three men and hit two others, but for the most part stayed out of harm’s way.

“I was getting low strikes and the defense helped me out,” he said. “Plus, their batters were chasing a lot pitches out of the strike zone. That’s what made me effective.”

South opened the scoring in the bottom of the first inning when Shore pumped a leadoff base hit to center field, stole second and scored on Greg Deal’s groundball single to right.

Asheboro (26-9) tied the score in the fourth when Stefanacci launched a 375-foot home run over the fence in left. Before the inning was over the visitors had taken a 3-1 lead and chased South starter Adam Earnhardt — who nonetheless earned high marks from winning coach Tony McKee.

“I was surprised they came and got him so early because he changed speeds very well,” McKee said. “He hit his spots. He moved it around and kept us off-balance. I thought he did a good job.”

Wilson handed the ball to right-hander Brandon Hiatt, who smoothed the edges with 213 innings of scoreless relief. In the meantime South knotted the score 3-3 with a pair of runs in the fifth. Shore delivered one run with a ground-rule double and Brad Matthews followed with a sharp RBI-single to right.

“It felt like we were regaining our confidence,” said Shore, who scored two of South’s runs and drove in the other. “I thought that might pick us up. It did for a few innings, but we beat ourselves back down after that.”

Asheboro reclaimed the lead in the top of the eighth, when South reliever Tim Cook (1-1) yielded back-to-back extra base hits after retiring the first two batters. The guests made it 5-3 on a costly wild pitch.

Then in the ninth South unraveled like a cheap sweater. Asheboro scored the game’s final four runs — three of them unearned — as Cook committed two errors, one on a high throw to first base and another on a misplayed bunt.

“I just made too many mistakes,” he said afterward. “I wasn’t tired. I wasn’t hurt. They’re a good-hitting team and they hit me. I didn’t do my job.”

South now must win four of the next five games or its history-making season will become just that — history.

“(Tonight) is the most important game of our season,” said Cook. “We always find ways to win and somehow, we will. This isn’t over yet.”

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NOTES: South will turn to ace left-hander Andrew Morgan (4-3, 3.27 ERA) in Game 3. Asheboro counters with right-hander Chris Powell.

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Contact David Shaw at sports@salisburypost.com .