Mt. Tabor baseball 9, West Rowan 3

By Mike London

mlondon@salisburypost.com

MOUNT ULLA — Mount Tabor's activity bus lost a window to a foul ball, but the Spartans had no interest in losing another ballgame.

The visitors belted three solo homers and beat West Rowan 9-3 on Monday in a non-conference matchup of teams trying to figure things out. It was a breakthrough for the Spartans (1-2). They had scored three runs in their first two games.

"We had some great at-bats and doubled our hits total for the season," coach Mike Lovelace said.

D.J. Webb's defense at third base was the highlight for West. Without his glove, it could've been 12-3. Chandler Jones and Ethan Marsh pitched for the Falcons.

A talented West team started 0-6 last season before rallying to 15-10. Minus Hernan Bautista, Carlos Bautista, Philip Miclat, Brantley Horton and Randy Shepherd, the current Falcons aren't a roster full of all-stars, but they should still be good.

West coach David Wright would prefer to avoid another rough start, but the Falcons are now 1-3. The win came against Northwood three days ago.

"We had a real good day Saturdaybecause we had a real good day on the mound," Wright said. "Today, we weren't good enough on the mound, didn't throw enough strikes and got behind too many people. Then we didn't make plays defensively and put too much pressure on our offense."

Two walks got Jones in trouble in the first, but he limited the damage to one run.

West took a 3-1 lead in the bottom of the inning, with all three runs coming in on Zack Simpson's routine groundball to the right side with one out and the bases full. The Spartans booted it, threw it around a little, and Falcons just kept running.

After that rough patch, Mount Tabor's pitching was pretty good and its defense was better than good.

Things started going Mount Tabor's way in the second when Matt McConnell belted one over the Blue Monster in left field.

Jamie Nunn made it back-to-backs with a homer to center for a 3-3 tie. The Spartans, road warriors who will play their first 17 games away from home because of field construction, picked up the go-ahead run in the second on a two-out hit, plus an outfield bobble.

Mount Tabor led 5-3 in the fourth when West sent Jon Crucitti to the plate with two out and runners at second and third. A game-tying single by Crucitti seemed likely, and Lovelace had a conversation with pitcher Collin MacIntosh as Crucitti went through his stretching routine.

MacIntosh fanned Crucitti. Huge out.

"You like to let the batter know that you know who he is," said Lovelace, who has encountered Crucitti in American Legion ball many times as Mocksville's coach. "We came down here with the idea that Crucitti wasn't going to beat us. MacIntosh getting him out there was the turning point in the game."

Mount Tabor's Brad Morton led off the fifth with a towering homer over the Monster to knock out Jones.

Then Mount Tabor left fielder Jake Reynolds made a back-to-the-plate running catch of a wicked smash by Patrick Hampton to start the bottom of the fifth. That grab took some fire out of the Falcons. They were pretty quiet the rest of the way.

"I didn't think he had any chance at all on that ball," Hampton said. "How he caught it, I have no idea."

Hampton and the Falcons will have a chance to bounce back today when they entertain South Rowan (2-1) in the NPC opener for both teams.

"South's coming in here off some success, and they're probably playing above expectations," Wright said. "We've got young kids who are playing hard, but I've been disappointed with some of our veterans. They've got to lead us, and I don't think they've brought it yet."