This is not the story Jim Gantt and his Rowan County American Legion baseball team wanted to tell — but it ends the same way.
Yes, Post 342 is headed for next week’s double-elimination state tournament at Garner High School. But no, it won’t participate as the Area III champion.
That much was determined Thursday night at swollen Newman Park, where Asheboro scored an unearned run in the top of the ninth inning and captured the decisive seventh game of the area finals. Its 7-6 victory ended Rowan’s bid to rally from a three-games-to-one series deficit.
“I appreciate the second-place trophy but I don’t understand why they even make second-place trophies,” Gantt, the disappointed first-year coach, said after an edge-of-your-seat finish. “It’s nice to go out there and get one, but nobody plays for second place. It kinda leaves a bad taste in your mouth.”
The stain from this loss may — or may not — take a long time to erase. Rowan (35-7) certainly had opportunities to score more runs and hoist the championship hardware. The locals stranded 16 baserunners, including nine in scoring position, and fell just short of defending their 2000 area title.
“Nobody expected us to come back in this series,” said Rowan outfielder Nick Lefko. “But one thing you can say is that we gave everything we had. This game, even though we lost, brought everyone together — the fans, the players, the coaches. Now we get a fresh start and just have to give our all down in the states.”
Asheboro (32-13) will enter the state tournament with a better seed, thanks largely to monstrous home runs by sluggers Ben Yow and Michael Stefanacci and a pair of ninth-inning blunders by the hosts.
“We’ve won games playing ‘Small Ball’ and moving runners and getting timely hits,” said Yow. “We may not hit home runs all the time, but we get them sometimes.”
Yow got one in the top of the first inning. With teammate Brett Andrews aboard, he swatted a first-pitch fastball from Rowan’s Phillip Goodman and drove it off the light pole beyond the left-field fence. It was his fourth round-tripper of the playoffs and fifth of the summer.
By the fourth, Rowan had taken a 4-2 lead against electric-armed right-hander Seth Pitt, who threw 156 pitches in 713 innings. That’s when Stefanacci — the defensive lineman in first baseman’s clothes — launched a two-run rocket that disappeared deep into the woods in left-center.
“They were both good pitches,” Rowan catcher Drew Davis indicated. “On the first one, you’re not going up there to walk the guy. You’ve got to make them swing the bats.
“The one Stefanacci hit was actually out of the strike zone — inner half on the shoelaces,” Davis continued. “But he went down and got it.”
Rowan reclaimed the lead in the last of the fourth. Cal Hayes drilled a leadoff double into the left-field corner, moved to third on Davis’ right-side groundout and scored on a wild pitch for a 5-4 edge.
Asheboro responded with two runs in the sixth, scoring first on Brian Clodfelter’s bounceout and then taking the lead on Derek Pugh’s squeeze bunt. But again Rowan showed resiliency by tying the score 6-6 in its half of the sixth. Hayes reached on an error and eventually scored when Spencer Steedley steered a one-out single through the left side.
“Every pitch was a battle,” said Gantt, repeating a common refrain. “We kept fighting back. We just didn’t pull it out.”
Asheboro’s winning rally began when John Pugh drew a one-out walk against Steedley (5-4). He advanced all the way to third when Andrews’ sacrifice bunt was thrown away by Rowan third baseman Bobby Parnell. Steedley’s wild pitch, with two out and Stefanacci in the batter’s box facing a 2-2 count, plated the game-winner.
“The way this series had gone, I never thought it would end on a wild pitch,” said Yow. “I thought a sacrifice fly or a squeeze, maybe. It just shows how wild this series was.”
“It’s how it should have ended,” voiced Stefanacci. “The whole series was close. Even in the last inning when we were ahead, you just knew they weren’t finished.”
Rowan did threaten in the last of the ninth, placing two runners on base before a forceout wrapped it up.
“We don’t have anything to be down about,” said Davis. “A lot of people are home right now. We’re still playing.”
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NOTES: Rowan will open the state tournament at 1 p.m. Thursday against Area II champion Wilmington, a powerful team that’s lost only twice this season. ... Rowan left the bases loaded in the second and eighth innings. Asheboro stranded three in the seventh when reliever Daniel Cauble fanned Stefanacci with a 2-2 junkball. ... Hayes and Steedley had two hits apiece. ... Stefanacci’s homer was his third of the series and sixth of the season.
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