ASHEBORO — West Rowan could be the county’s baseball program of the future, but coach Chris Cauble is quite happy with the present.

The Falcons defeated Asheboro 3-1 here Tuesday night to advance to the second round of the state 3A playoffs for the first time since 1997.

Cauble’s club, 16-10, will meet South Point at 7 p.m. Friday at West.

West’s jayvee team had an unbeaten season, and the West Rowan Middle School seventh-grade team is strong.

“I’ve tried to sell it to the seniors and juniors,” said Cauble. “They’ve heard about the ninth-grade group and the seventh-grade group. They’re our two good groups. I told them, ‘You are going to be the start of something big, and you’ve got to believe that. They’ve stuck through it. And they’re not bad themselves.”

Cauble likes the direction in which the West program is headed. He thought back to last year, when the Falcons went 14-12 and lost out to Central Davidson in the first round of the playoffs.

“Last year, we made the playoffs. It was my first playoff experience as a head coach.It was also all my players’, besides Shawn Trosper, first playoff experience in any sport, and his was basketball. We were all just happy to be there,” he pointed out.

“I told them that I was just happy to be there (last year), but this year it’s a little different. ‘You’ve all got playoff experience. You’ve all faced quality pitching, and it’s time to go to work.’ ”

The Falcons, the South Piedmont Conference’s No. 3 seed, went to work against the Blue Comets (18-6), the top seed from the Tri-County, early, taking a 1-0 lead in the first inning. Asheboro tied it with an unearned run off star pitcher Jared Barnette in the fourth, then the Falcons got runs in the fifth and sixth innings on clutch hitting by Clay Everson, Ryan Schenk and Barnette, who shook off a fourth-inning knee injury and pitched the entire game, hurling a five-hitter.

“We came in expecting to win,” said Cauble, whose team played a tough SPC schedule, losing twice to No. 1 Central Cabarrus and three times to No. 2 East Rowan.

Cauble referred to a game preview in the Post on Monday that pointed out that the Falcons had not scored a lot of runs — three or less in 12 of their first 25 games.

“I told them, ‘Everybody’s written you off. Nobody expects you to win. ... We don’t hit the ball. We’re not as good as some of those other teams. We slid in the backdoor. (West got help on the final day of the season when Harding knocked A.L. Brown out of third place). It ought to get in your back a little bit, because you’ve earned your spot here. You’ve played the whole year through it. You’ve seen good pitching every day, and it’s time to go in and make some noise,” ’ said Cauble.

Now the Falcons hope to make some noise in the second round, at home.

“Some of our kids were telling me on the way down here, ‘You know, we only lost twice at home.’ I said, ‘No, I didn’t realize that.’ They’re thinking now, and that’s a good thing,” said the West coach.

The Falcons own the third-best record in Rowan County, but they’re the only local team left standing in the playoffs. That says something for the present.

But watch out for the Falcons in the future!

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Contact Ed Dupree at 704-797-4258 or edupree@salisburypost.com