LEXINGTON— The Cavaliers won’t enjoy the game they have to play today.
Instead of taking part in the game they love, North Rowan will sit on the sidelines and play the worst game of all.
The waiting game.
Ledford knocked the Cavs out of the 2A Central Carolina Conference Tournament on Tuesday with a 3-2 victory at Holt-Moffitt Field. Tonight, the Panthers can knock North out of the state playoffs with a win over East Davidson in the CCC title game.
Only two teams from the league make the state playoffs — regular-season champ East and the No. 2 Cavs, unless someone else wins the tournament.
“There’s no need to worry about it,”North head coach Bill Kesler said of tonight’s game.“We had a chance to do it ourselves and we didn’t do it, so we shouldn’t worry.”
Instead, the Cavs will have to simply accept their fate and wonder what went wrong against a Ledford team they hadn’t lost to in three years.
Panther starter Michael Gibson silenced the potent North offense, allowing just one earned run on three hits.
North struck for a run in the bottom of the first on Erik Mowery’s booming double to center, but he was stranded at third. A pair of walks in the second and fourth innings netted nothing, and the only other run Gibson surrendered came in the third, when Jimbo Davis singled and scored on an error.
“Three runs should not beat us, especially when we got two early. ”Kesler said. “We had five innings to get another one. We were in the position we wanted to be a couple times. We didn’t hit.”
After Ledford scored twice in the fourth to take a 3-2 lead, Gibson was nearly perfect.
He threw a 1-2-3 fifth inning thanks to a spectacular catch in right field by John Brinkley, who raced all out toward the line and dove to snag Tad Ogg’s extra-base hit.
The Cavs again went down in order in the sixth, with first baseman John Weavil making the third of three nice scoops to prevent an infield error. Gibson also picked up two of his three strikeouts in the inning.
“He was throwing the ball harder, with more pop on it, than at the beginning of the game,”Ledford head coach Kevin Gillespie said. “A lot of that has to do with confidence. You see a guy dive all out for you to make a catch, that helps.”
North starter Brandon Doby struggled with his control, walking four and hitting three Panthers in 32/3 innings of work. Just like Gibson, though, he managed to dance out of a few tight spots.
A double-play liner to second baseman Bubba Morris ended Ledford’s first-inning threat. The Panthers’ Doug Fowler was called out on a suicide squeeze attempt in the second when Tyler Slabaugh missed the bunt.
Slabaugh atoned himself in the third, getting hit and scoring Ledford’s first run off Chase Adams’ two-out single.
Doby opened the fourth with a strikeout before Fowler’s hard single to right turned into a triple when it rolled all the way to the fence. Brad Myers walked on a 3-2 count and Josh Massey, who was attempting to bunt, took a ball up and in to the face that may — or may not, depending on which dugout saw it — have hit his bat before it hit him.
With the bases loaded, Slabaugh hit a drive to center that Aaron Rimer reeled in. With no shot at preventing the run from scoring, Rimer fired to third. The ball hit Myers and went toward the dugout, but appeared to stay in play for Doby, who quickly grabbed it and was ready to prevent the third run from scoring.
But the umpire put up his hands to signal that the ball went out of play, saying it went into the dugout and then bounced out. That brought Myers home with what turned out to be the winning run.
Doby, after another walk and hit batter, gave way to Philip Goodman, who escaped the jam and allowed just two hits the rest of the way.
“I think I left him in two batters too long,”Kesler said of Doby. “Then Philip came in — it looked like I should’ve started him.”
Since the Cavs couldn’t score more than two runs, it might not have mattered. After the final outs — Davis’ smash to short that was converted into a slick 6-4-3 twin killing — the Panthers spilled out of the dugout to celebrate their tournament title — and playoff — shot.
“The pressure’s on North Rowan and East Davidson,”Gillespie said. “Both of them beat us twice and it’s hard to beat a team three times.”
Now, the pressure on North is to not watch the clock all day wondering about its playoff fate.
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