GRANITE QUARRY — In a way, a fitting end to a fitful season for East Rowan baseball.
The Mustangs fell 4-3 to ancient nemesis South Point in the first round of the state 3A playoffs on Tuesday night at Staton Field, stranding eight baserunners, missing a game-winning homer by a handful of feet and leaving hundreds of forlorn fans with misty eyes.
“This game was a reflection of our whole season,” said East right fielder Nick Lefko, who launched that last-ditch drive that nearly salvaged the evening. “We just didn’t get two-out hits.”
“The opportunities were there tonight like they were all year,” agreed East coach Jeff Safrit, who’s 10th straight sojourn to the playoffs screeched to an abrupt halt. “We were in every game. It always came down to one play or one hit. It’s tough. When your season ends with a one-run loss, you’d just as soon get beat 10-nothing.”
It was a year in which East (17-9) usually lived on the edge — and sometimes slipped off the ledge. Tuesday night’s defeat was the Mustangs’ sixth by a single run. There were two two-run losses. The Mustangs’ most-lopsided setback all season was 3-0 to Jared Barnette at West Rowan.
“The top six guys in tonight’s lineup will be back,” said Safrit. “But It still hurts. We wanted to go somewhere this season.”
But there will be no more trips for these Mustangs unless they travel cross-county to Mount Ulla on Friday to watch South Point (21-7) battle West (16-10) in the second round. The Falcons won 3-1 on the road against Tri-County champ Asheboro (18-6).
Things started in worst-case-scenario fashion for East. It took precious time for Mustang starter Spencer Steedley, a sophomore, to settle in. He walked two of the game’s first three batters. Both came around.
Ian Gibson’s double made it 1-0. With runners at second and third and one out, Safrit, who anticipated a low-scoring duel, brought his infield in. Steedley got the desired ground ball, but it was a smash that caromed off shortstop Cal Hayes Jr.’s body. That made it 2-0. Steedley then nearly got an inning-ending double play ball, but a hustling Josh Pennington outraced middleman Justin Miller’s peg to first and the third run of the inning scored.
“Jumping out to a three-run lead was so big,’’ said South Point coach Mickey Lineberger, who was matching wits with Safrit for the fifth time in 10 years.
That was especially true since many of these same South Point players had not scratched in a 7-0 loss at Staton Field in the 2000 playoffs. But Red Raider confidence didn’t stay high long. South Point pitcher Devon Lowery, who was routinely reaching 89 mph on a half-dozen radar guns, hung a curve to Lefko with two outs in the bottom half of the first. The East junior lofted it over the left-field fence, scoring Hayes ahead of him.
“It wasn’t like I killed it,” said Lefko. “I was geared for a fastball. I tried to adjust, but I hit it with just my arms.”
Both pitchers nimbly ducked in and out of rush-hour traffic for the next hour. The closest call came when Steedley stabbed Patrick Faulkner’s wicked two-out, bases-loaded liner through the box in the third to save two runs.
Steedley nearly soft-shoed around two more walks in the fifth, but Pennington refused to let him. His clutch two-out single made it 4-2.
Lefko opened the sixth with a hit off a tiring Lowery, but was forced at second on a remarkable play by shortstop Chad Pennington, who dove to his right to stab a burner off the bat of Bobby Parnell. That gem prevented a big inning, because Julian Sides followed with a bloop hit and pinch-hitter Aaron Safrit eventually worked a walk. Lowery retired Chad Sansbury on a two-out, bases-loaded pop to escape unscathed.
“That shortstop had made a couple of errors and then he goes and makes a great play like that,” groaned Safrit. “But we still had a chance. We had kids that could hit Lowery up there. He’s good, but no different than seven or eight pitchers in our league. He wasn’t as good as (Central Cabarrus right-hander) Brian York was when he pitched here.”
East got five relief outs from Sides and one big one from Jeremy Teague and limped to the last of the seventh still down just two. Lowery stared in at East’s leadoff man, Hayes. He walked him, then walked Drew Davis on a couple of borderline pitches, bringing Lineberger to the mound.
“Devon didn’t think he could get a strike called,” said Lineberger. “His relationship with the ump wasn’t too good by then and we had to repair it. So I told Devon, ‘Let’s let Chris finish it.’ ”
“Chris” was Chris Ensley, South Point’s third baseman, who made All-State last season. Ensley strolled over and fanned Steedley, but on a swing-and-miss strike three, the ball hit the dirt and ricocheted, advancing both Hayes and Davis — the tying runs — into scoring position. Next came the hot-hitting Lefko — and a tough decision for Lineberger. First base was open, but Lefko represented the winning run.
“I couldn’t put Lefko on,” said Lineberger, who motioned for Ensley to work to the batter. “Been bit too many times in the past on that one.”
Ensley jumped ahead 0-and-2 and Lineberger breathed more easily. But then the fresh hurler hung a bender, just as Lowery had done with Lefko in the first. “That pitch was way too pretty,” drawled Lineberger.
Lefko concurred and took a mighty rip. The ball and East hopes soared skyward. It was deep — but playable. Lowery, who had shifted to center field, roamed left and gathered it in. Hayes tagged and tallied, but East was still a run shy.
“I knew I was jammed just a little bit,” sighed Lefko. “I knew it wasn’t going out, but I was hoping it would still drop in the gap. But Lowery’s a good outfielder.”
“Nick got it in the wrong spot. If he’d been just a tad quicker,” sighed Safrit.
But it was merely the final near-miss in a season chock full of them. The next batter, Parnell, went down swinging at three big-breaking Ensley deuces and it was over. Heads down, the mute Mustangs shook hands with their celebrating conquerors, who had earned a heaping helping of tasty revenge.
“We played with fire and heart,” said Lineberger. “This is a real tough place to come —a real tough place to win. But we got it done.”
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NOTES:East’s nine losses were the most Safrit’s suffered since his first year at the school in 1991, when he went 13-11. That stat shows just how good East’s been for a decade. “I think a lot of people would trade seasons with us,” Safrit said... Safrit predicts huge things for Steedley, who fanned nine. “Spencer learned what it’s like to be out on that mound for a playoff game at Staton Field,” he said. “He’s throwing 83 (mph) and he’s gonna get 85 or 86. He’s gonna be tough to hit the next two years.” ... Playing their last games for East were Adam Cornelius, Aaron Safrit, Moose Misenheimer, Sansbury, Miller and Teague.
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Contact Mike London at 704-797-4259 or mlondon@salisburypost.com
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