MOCKSVILLE — Saturday afternoon, the Mocksville-Davie American Legion team
conducted a meeting of the minds.
Then on Saturday night, Mocksville’s bats finally
— finally — started meeting some baseballs.
Mocksville, batting under .260 as a team, put
together one of its better offensive outings of the season — and needed every
bit of it — to hold off a South Rowan team that wouldn’t die.
“We wanted this one, we really did, said South
second baseman Greg Deal. “Unfortunately, Mocksville did, too. We know what
they were feeling like. We’ve been there.”
Mocksville (8-6, 4-5) had played what may have been
its worst game of the season on Friday, an embarrassing 12-1 thrashing at the
hands of Mooresville. After that bloodbath — Mocksville’s third straight
loss — coach Mike Lovelace called for a Saturday afternoon practice and
normally quiet Mocksville star Andrew Daywalt called for a team meeting.
After all that excitement, South arrived at Rich
Park and grabbed an enraged tiger by the tail.
In the first inning, Mocksville’s mammoth first
baseman Dave Poplin, one of those guys whom broadcaster Dizzy Dean used to say
was big enough to go bear-hunting without a switch, got a 2-0 fastball from
South starter Mike Davis and launched it into the trees for a 2-0 lead.
In the third, Davis got ahead of Daywalt 0-2, but
made the next pitch too fat and paid for it with a shot to the gap that made it
4-0.
“That 0-2 pitch just can’t be that good,” said
South coach Allen Wilson. “That meant two runs and really hurt us.”
It was 5-0 after Josh Golding, who had not had a hit
the entire season before last night, drilled a single to plate Daywalt.
A 5-0 deficit for a team that has struggled like
South (3-10, 1-8) has, usually means it’s over. But not this time.
“Sometimes when we’ve gotten down, we’ve just
been gone,” said Deal. “Maybe people thought this might be another quickie
(10-run rule game), but we believed in ourselves. We stayed in the game.”
South rallied for four runs in the fifth, bunching
four hits with an error and Jeremy Alderman’s sac fly. The big blow was a
two-out, two-run double by Adam Cornelius. With the go-ahead run at first and
the tying run at third, Lovelace reluctantly lifted his starter, Cody Crotts.
Replacing Crotts, was lefty Ryan Weavil, who has
been the story of the summer for Mocksville. Weavil, who pitched only four
innings of high school ball this spring at Glenn High, doesn’t throw hard, but
hurls three pitches for strikes. He escaped that fifth-inning mess by getting a
ground ball off the bat of Nick Mayle.
And to everyone’s surprise, a dogged Weavil lasted
the rest of the way with his 76 mph “heater.”
“Weavil comes through time after time for us,”
said Lovelace. “And every time he comes in, he seems to do a little more.”
“I guess,” said Weavil, “I like a challenge in
life. I like coming in with those guys on.”
Davie bumped its lead back to 8-4 with a three-run
sixth against South reliever Jeremy Teague, who gave a first-class effort out of
the pen. Two of those runs came when Charlie Ross’ long fly to left fell at
the wall. Ross circled the bases, first dashing toward an unattended third base,
then strolling home when catcher Justin Pinyan missed connections with Deal, who
was trying to get back to the bag.
Still, South wasn’t done.
It scored once in the seventh, then went to work
against Weavil in the ninth. Pinch-hitter Gabe Beaver got things started with a
one-out single and Jeremy Alderman got an infield hit. A wild pitch and a
fielder’s choice made it 8-6 and brought the dangerous Raymondo Brady to the
plate as the tying run.
But Weavil won a lengthy battle with Brady, striking
him out swinging on a 3-2 fastball down the pipe.
“We lost a baseball game,” said an upbeat
Wilson. “But this was a real solid effort.”
n
Contact Mike London at 704-797-4259 or mlondon@salisburypost.com
.
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