Spencer Steedley and Cory Ruff both gave Stanly County some rough treatment here Saturday night.
Steedley, making his first start of the young American Legion baseball season, struck out a career-high 11 batters while pitching Rowan County to a 15-3 victory over Stanly at Newman Park.
Ruff, a first-year player, belted Rowan’s first homer of the season, a three-run shot to center in the fifth inning. He had four runs batted in.
It was the Southern Division opener for coach Jim Gantt’s Rowan club, which improved to 3-0 overall. Stanly, which beat Mocksville-Davie on Friday, is 1-1 in the league.
“Spencer pitched a great game,” said Gantt of the left-hander from East Rowan. “When you have a pitcher on the mound like that, you can relax and swing the bat a little better and play good defense.”
Steedley worked the first six innings of a contest that was called after 6 1/2 frames by the 10-run lead rule. He allowed four hits and two walks. Both runs scored off him were unearned.
Gantt wasn’t surprised at Steedley’s high strikeout total for six innings.
“He pitched well at East this year. ... Just getting a year older and all the work he did in high school and leading up to high school paid off for him,” said the coach.
“I picked up a lot of velocity with my fastball, and I’ve got a better curveball and slider this year,” said Steedley, who says he’s “four or five inches” taller and 25 pounds heavier than at the start of last season.
As for the 11 strikeouts, the southpaw said, “I was having my good stuff tonight. I knew I was going to get a lot of strikeouts.”
Steedley also joined in Rowan’s 14-hit attack, going 2-for-3 with a double and three RBIs.
“I was seeing the ball good, so I was taking some good rips at it,” he said.
Ruff (2-for-4 with four RBIs) was also seeing the ball well.
“I’ve just been hitting the ball hard, and one finally went,” said the senior third baseman from West Rowan, whose only previous homer came in JV ball two years ago.
Ruff, 4-for-11 for a .364 batting average, is the only Rowan player with an extra-base hit in every game.
“He’s hit the ball hard,” said Gantt. “He just did everything right at the right time. I think he’s got a little power. He’s a line drive hitter.”
“I just want to score runs,” said Ruff, who didn’t go out for Legion ball last year but decided to this time. “I just wanted to get better. I like it. Even though everything is serious out there, we still enjoy it.”
Aaron Rimer (3-for-3), Drew Davis (2-for-3 with three RBIs) and Cal Hayes Jr. (2-for-3) also hit well for Rowan, which hosts Eastern Randolph at home at 7 p.m. Monday.
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