CONCORD— Concord American Legion pitcher Todd Greene’s payback left Kannapolis in desperate need of a comeback.
Greene, who lost a no-hit bid in the ninth inning — and then the ballgame — in Sunday’s playoff opener, came right back with a complete-game effort on Wednesday as Concord won 8-4 and seized a commanding 3-1 lead in this best-of-7, first-round series.
Game 5 is set for tonight at 7:15 at A.L. Brown High.
On just two day’s rest, Greene was close to his best.
“I was asked to pitch, so I did what I could,” shrugged Greene.
“Todd’s got some guts,” said Concord coach Josh Stamey. “My dad (Marty) coached at Northwest Cabarrus for a long time and he’s seen a lot of ballplayers. He said Todd’s got as much guts as anyone he’s seen. That means something coming from him.”
While Greene’s arm somehow didn’t fall off, third-seeded Kannapolis (11-10), a state tournament participant last season and the last team to beat top-seeded Rowan County this season, is on the verge of falling off the playoff map.
Last year at this time, Kannapolis was rolling. Now it’s reeling.
“Concord’s doing what it takes to win,” said Kannapolis coach Joe Hubbard. “Good pitching, good defense, big hits. And we’re not playing our best.”
Kannapolis was on top twice — at 2-1 and 4-2 — but couldn’t hold off a sixth-seeded team that looked finished two weeks ago, but is suddenly playing like gangbusters.
“We went through a stretch of losing close games — four of them in the ninth inning,” said Stamey. “But like I told the guys, the playoffs are a new season.”
Concord has narrowly missed sweeping Kannapolis four straight. Only that amazing comeback in Game 1 has Hubbard’s team breathing.
“Things shouldn’t have gone down for Greene the way they did in Game 1,” said Stamey. “We all felt bad for him. But tonight we gave him some offense.”
Actually, Greene provided most of that offense himself. He smacked two solo homers to the short left-field porch at Webb Field off Kannapolis starter Brooks Little and also singled home a run. At one point, it was Kannapolis 4, Greene 3.
“I wasn’t pitching as well as I did the other night, so I guess I had to make up for it,” said Greene.
Kannapolis turned four double plays, but a fifth one it didn’t get, may have been the biggest moment of the night.
With one out and one on in the Concord fourth and Kannapolis leading 4-2, Josh Benton hit a shot at shortstop Jonathan Goodman. Goodman nearly doubled Chris Taylor off first to end the inning. But Taylor got back (maybe) with a dive and Concord (10-12) went on to score three runs. Justin Ridenhour’s clutch two-run single put Concord ahead to stay.
“It was a bang-bang play at first— a judgment call,” said Hubbard. “Sure, we’d like to have gotten it. We wanted it. It was big.”
Kannapolis got its first run when Andrew Petty and Matt Stack pulled off a double steal. Wally Tuttle, who’d already saved two runs with a backhand stop at third base, singled in the second run. Tyson Fink’s two-run homer to left-center in the fourth gave Kannapolis a short-lived 4-2 lead.
“Greene killed us the first game and he had us guessing all night again,” said Fink. “I guessed right on the homer. I was sitting on a fastball and got all of it.”
But Concord never flinched. A lost-in-the-lights fly ball cost Kannapolis a run in the fifth. A two-out single by Brandon White tacked on another run in the sixth. Slugger Brian York, 0-for-3 early, drilled one toward Jupiter in the eighth.
Meanwhile, Kannapolis couldn’t get much of anything going against Greene.
“We had mental mistakes, baserunning mistakes,” sighed Hubbard. “Concord pushed the right buttons, we didn’t.”
Still, the series isn’t over just yet. Kannapolis will have ace Zach Ward, who won Game 1, on the mound tonight.
“We just have to take it inning by inning, pitch by pitch,” said Hubbard.
“We can do it,” said Fink. “Our backs are to the wall, but this is when we’re at our best. Hey, we’re (Post) 501 and we’ve done it before.”
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NOTES:The winner of the series takes on the South-Mooresville survivor. ... Concord reserve John Killian was struck in the head by a throw as the Kannapolis infield loosened up between half-innings. Killian, who was walking behind the fence toward the home dugout, staggered and then collapsed. He was taken to the hospital. ... Stamey said Kannapolis was the ideal draw for his team. “It’s close and we knew a lot of people would come out to watch,” he said. “The games have all been heartstoppers. We thought this would be the best matchup in the first round.”
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Contact Mike London at 704-797-4259 or mlondon@salisburypost.com
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