BY STEVE HANF
SALISBURY POST

ASHEBORO— With each hit batsman, every high and tight fastball — even the one that went behind an Asheboro hitter — the home fans grew more restless.

“Throw him outta here!” one disgruntled fan yelled after Brandon Doby recorded his second hit-by-pitch.

Yeah, like he meant to do it with the bases loaded.

Rowan County’s tall right-hander always throws hard. Sometimes, like Wednesday night, he doesn’t always throw straight. But despite walking six and hitting three Asheboro batters, he gave head coach Jim Gantt exactly what was needed — seven solid, albeit troubled, innings.

The Rowan offense took care of the rest in a 15-6 win at McCrary Park to force a Game 7 in the Area III championship series.

“It was a case tonight where he really had to stay out there,”Gantt said. “He had to get us the innings. It was fortunate that we scored runs early so we were able to stay with him.”

Facing an elimination game, Rowan staked Doby to a 3-0 lead in the first inning. He walked the first man he faced in the bottom half and surrendered two runs, but Rowan tacked on four more in the second for a 7-2 advantage.

That seemed to help a whole lot.

“I was really trying to relax,”Doby said. “It’s a lot easier to do when you’ve got a good lead like tonight.”

After Rowan exploded for five runs in the top of the fifth, Doby found himself in a mess of trouble. He hit Brent Cole to lead off the bottom half of the frame, then allowed an infield single and a walk to load the bases. An error on another infield grounder brought one run home and Doby walked Kyle Pugh on five pitches to make it 12-4. Another infield error brought home Asheboro’s fifth run.

In the sixth, Doby hit Cole to lead off the inning and gave up back-to-back singles to load the bases with no outs. Rowan’s fans groaned nervously, having seen Asheboro play catch-up ball all series long.

Gantt, though, stayed in the dugout.

“That gives me a lot of confidence, knowing that he has the confidence in me,”Doby said. “That was a big inning.”

That understatement doesn’t do Doby’s escape act justice. He got No. 2 man Brett Andrews to pop up to short left, holding the runners. Ben Yow lined to Jimbo Davis in left and again the runners stayed put.

After hitting Kyle Pugh to make it 14-6, Doby then coaxed designated hitter Brett Welch into an easy grounder to third for a forceout.

“We felt we’d be able to come back against Doby. He was throwing hard and missing up — things that would work in our favor,”Asheboro head coach Tony McKee said. “We hit some nice shots right at people, and we hit some nice shots and they ran them down.”

Cal Hayes Jr. and Shawn Trosper — again playing second base — each turned nice double plays to end two threats.

Nick Lefko was his usual self in center, racing in for a sliding catch of a sinking liner in the second, racing back and leaping against the wall in dead center to rob Yow of extra bases in the third.

Ironically, the thud from the outfield fence came from Lefko hitting the wall after his great catch and not the ball —against the “YES!” sign from a local bank’s advertisement 400 feet from home plate.

After watching Rowan’s pitchers victimized by spotty defense earlier in the series, Doby enjoyed the support Wednesday.

“We cut down on our errors,”he said. “Lefko made some amazing plays out there. So did our other outfielders.”

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Contact Steve Hanf at 704-797-4287 or shanf@salisburypost.com .