Eastern Randolph won the home run derby, but Rowan County was still victorious in a free-scoring AmericanLegion baseball game Sunday night.

Coach Jim Gantt’s Rowan club downed visiting Eastern Randolph 19-14 in a non-league contest at Newman Park to improve to 5-1 for the season.

Eastern Randolph, the top-seeded team in the Area III playoffs last season and one of the favorites again, is 2-1.

The Randolph club belted four home runs, including two by University of North Carolina signee Mickey Burgess.

Rowan, which got homers from Jimbo Davis and Nick Lefko, had eight extra-base hits for the second straight game. Lefko led the way with a homer and a triple, while Davis had a homer and a double. Cal Hayes Jr. contributed a triple and a double. Aaron
Rimer and Spencer Steedley doubled.

Burgess and James Lowe hit back-to-back homers in the first inning as the Randolph crew took a 4-0 lead. Burgess crushed a long homer to center with a teammate on base, then Lowe drove one over the scoreboard in left-center. John Verdinek hit a solo homer to left in the fifth, and Burgess hit another two-run shot down the right field line in the sixth.

“We hit a couple, too, and they all counted the same,” said Gantt, whose club has now hit five homers — two by Davis.

Rowan had seven doubles in a 14-4 win over Burlington on Thursday, then three more doubles last night.

“Anytime you can get two bases on a hit, it’s good, because you’re always in scoring position,” said Gantt. “I hope it keeps going. We’ve been working on the short game a lot, bunting and moving runners up, and we’re hitting doubles now.”

Rowan trailed Eastern by 7-2 going into the last of the fifth inning, then Gantt’s club erupted for six runs, two coming on Hayes’ triple down the left field line.

Eastern then took a 10-8 lead in the sixth, when Derek Saunders doubled home a run and Burgess followed with his slicing homer to right.

Rowan charged right back with seven runs in the bottom of the sixth, when Davis hit his towering homer to left-center.I It was 15-10, and Rowan stayed on top the rest of the way.

Hayes, Jimbo Davis, Drew Davis, Rimer, Steedley, Lefko and Shawn Trosper each had two of Rowan’s 16 hits. Hayes and Jimbo Davis drove in three runs each.

Eastern’s Clapp and Verdinek each had three hits, and Burgess had four RBIs with his two homers.

“He was good when he was 15 and we played them,” said Gantt of the Eastern shortstop. “He’s a good player. He seems like he enjoys playing.”

Burgess went 6-for-15 with a homer for Eastern in a 1999 four-game sweep of Rowan in the Area III championship series.

Gantt was especially pleased that his team came back from deficits of 7-2 and 10-8.

“Our guys came together tonight,I think. We were all fighting for the same that, that was to battle back, and that’s what we did,” he said.

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NOTES: Rowan returns to league action at 7:15 p.m. today at Newman Park against Kannapolis. Left-hander Steedley (2-0) will be the starting pitcher. ... Reliever Daniel Cauble (2-0) got the victory for Rowan last night. He was the fourth of seven hurlers for the winners.

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