After each batter he faced, Phillip Goodman stepped off the mound, studied the wound on his pitching hand and figured everything was in good enough working order to continue.
Burlington’s batters gave him little reason to think otherwise.
Goodman limited Burlington-Graham to one earned run on five hits Thursday night and Rowan County rallied for three runs in the eighth inning for a 5-2 victory and commanding 3-0 series lead. Rowan tries for the sweep and one of Area III’s berths in the American Legion Baseball State Tournament tonight at Graham Middle School.
Goodman lasted eight innings but almost didn’t make it into the sixth thanks to a re-occurring blister on the middle finger of his right hand. Goodman said the injury first happened during the high school season and didn’t return until his last start in the Mocksville-Davie series.
“Every time he threw a pitch it ripped a little more off,”Rowan head coach Jim Gantt said. “The umpire said if it started bleeding, he’d have to come out, but it never did.”
An early exit would’ve been great news for Burlington(20-16), as Goodman stymied the Post 63 batters into the eighth. Goodman stranded five baserunners through the first four innings, then allowed just one hit over the middle innings and pitched a 1-2-3, five-pitch seventh.
“The most disappointing thing is that we didn’t make any adjustments (to Goodman),”Burlington head coach Todd Wirt said. “We continued to pop out, pop out, pop out. I thought we should have swung the bats better.”
Rowan (31-3) held a 2-0 lead entering the eighth thanks to Jimbo Davis’ two-run blast out of Newman Park in the fourth inning against Brandon Perry. But an error and hit batsman left runners at second and third with one out and Burlington cleanup man Blake Jordan at the plate.
Jordan sent the first pitch he saw right back at Goodman. The liner bounced off the mound and over second baseman Michael Gegorek’s head for an unusual two-run single to tie the game.
“We knew they were going to rally at some point in the game,”Gantt said. “We had the one miscue, but Phillip did a nice job to get out of it only a tie game.”
Goodman, relieved at ending the frame with no further damage, trotted confidently back to the dugout. All of Rowan’s fans and players had seen this scenario before.
“I had a feeling we’d have a big inning in the eighth,”Goodman said.“The eighth inning has been our inning this series and we’ve been a good comeback team this year.”
In Game 1, Rowan broke it open with seven runs in the eighth. Wednesday night it was six in the sixth. Game 3 provided another big eighth inning.
Perry walked Aaron Rimer to lead it off, then threw an errant pick-off to first. That meant Drew Davis didn’t have to sacrifice. He instead chopped a ball to short that Nick Starnes hesitated on, then threw high to first to allow Davis to reach safely.
Runners in scoring position with a big hit needed? With RBI machine Steedley walking to the plate, the Rowan fans simply sat back in their seats and waited for the game-winning hit.
Steedley, with 40 RBIs (in only 94 at-bats) and countless clutch hits this season, delivered a double to the gap in left-center, bringing home both runs.
“The first three at-bats he (Perry) had me off-balance. He was throwing his change-up at any time in the count,”Steedley said.“That time I got a fastball, and on a 2-1 count that’s what I was looking for.”
Steedley raced home with Rowan’s fifth run on a wild pitch, leaving Burlington just three outs to score three runs.
“We gained some momentum by tying it up,”Wirt said. “Then we walk the leadoff man and make an error to compound the situation. You can’t do that against a good team like Rowan.”
After playing the role of hero from the plate, Steedley took the mound in the ninth and got to be the closer for the second time in the series. He breezed through Burlington’s 7-8-9 batters for the save, although the appearance did cost him the Game 4 starting assignment. Jacob Cooper will get the ball instead.
“In this position we’ve been able to use him twice instead of just starting him one game,”Gantt said of
Steedley. “He likes that role.”
Of course, Steedley does still enjoy starting, too.
“It’s fun getting to come in. You’ve got to shut them down and throw strikes,”he said. “But I like to start and get in there the whole game.”
He may not get the chance to do that this series, with Burlington down to its final game. But Wirt’s team pulled off a thrilling 3-1 comeback against Eastern Randolph in the previous round, so Burlington will be hoping for a little more magic tonight.
“They want to play well for the home fans and there’s a bunch of guys out here who aren’t ready to stop playing yet,”Wirt said. “If that bunch can pull us through, we’d like to try to prolong this and come back here Saturday night.”
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NOTES: Centerfielder Nick Lefko added to his defensive highlight film when he raced over to catch a hard liner in the second inning and fired a strike to first for a double play. … Cal Hayes Jr. went hitless for just the third game this summer, ending a 14-game hitting streak. … Drew Davis doubled in the third inning ahead of Jimbo Davis’ homer, his eighth. The high, arching drive landed well into the trees in left.
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Contact Steve Hanf at 704-797-4287 or shanf@salisburypost.com
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