South baseball 9, Salisbury 8

By Bret Strelow

bstrelow@salisburypost.com

LANDIS — Buck Showalter famously ordered an intentional walk of San Francisco Giants slugger Barry Bonds in a bases-loaded situation 12 years ago.

Fittingly, a Giants scout was in attendance Tuesday to see Salisbury coach Scott Maddox give South Rowan's Maverick Miles the same treatment.

Miles tripled, homered and picked up a sixth-inning RBI on a free pass before using his speed to help South escape with a 9-8 win over the visiting Hornets.

Blake Houston's sacrifice fly tied the game in the bottom of the seventh inning. Runners were at first and second with two away when Cory Deason came to the plate, and Tyler Kowalczyk stole third.

With freshman reliever Brian Bauk set to deliver a 1-2 pitch to Deason, Miles broke for second. Bauk stepped off the mound and jogged toward Miles.

Kowalczyk, a standout distance runner, left third and beat the throw to complete a walkoff steal of home.

"We had two rabbits on the basepaths and were going to allow Cory to swing it a little bit until he got two strikes," South coach Thad Chrismon said. "We were going to take a chance with an early steal and see how they reacted. I trusted my baserunners.

"We practice it enough so our pitchers know what to do on our end. I felt like we were comfortable enough to do it offensively."

Starting pitchers Matt Miller (South) and Philip Tonseth (Salisbury) were effective until poor defense created an offensive flurry.

A solo homer by Miles gave South a 2-1 lead in the fifth inning, and four errors in the top of the sixth enabled Salisbury (2-2) to post six unearned runs. The Raiders (5-2) evened the score in the bottom half of the frame, then fell behind on a two-out single by Tonseth in the seventh.

"They come back to tie the game and, to our kids' credit, they did come back in and scratch out a run," Maddox said. "But you can't go right back out and give it away again. You can't let a team make six errors and beat you. You've got to be able to take those kinds of games."

South's Daniel Mullis, who earned the win in relief, reached on an error to begin the bottom of the seventh. Kowalczyk walked, and a wild pitch put two runners in scoring position for Houston.

His flyball to left field drove in Mullis, and Maddox intentionally walked Miles for the second consecutive inning.

Bauk induced a pop-up to third for the second out and was one strike away from forcing extra innings when the Raiders successfully executed the double steal.

"After I saw him show a lot of focus to going toward Maverick, that's when I decided to go," Kowalczyk said. "It was pretty much instinct."

The Hornets managed one hit — an infield single — in the first five innings. Their sixth-inning outburst began with a walk and back-to-back errors.

John Knox scored on a throwing error to tie the game, and Scott Van der Poel produced a two-run single. He scored on a Tonseth double, and Bauk came through with a two-run single for a 7-2 lead.

South's Jacob Dietz led off the bottom of the sixth with a single and stayed at first on a pop-up to shallow center field. Knox, the shortstop, dropped the ball inadvertently and then threw high of second base with Dietz still far away from the bag.

A bloop single by Mullis loaded the bases for Kowalczyk, who drew a walk. Bauk took over for Tonseth and struck out Houston. Miles represented the tying run, and South closed within 7-4 when Maddox opted to walk the .636 hitter.

"He had tripled — almost hit it out — then he hits one out," Maddox said. "He popped up to right field and just missed one. You look at the situation, it's 7-3 with the bases loaded. It can be 7-7 with one swing or 7-4."

An infield error allowed the next run to score, and Deason tied the game with a two-run single up the middle.

Bauk avoided further damage by striking out two of the next three batters.

A one-out walk by Salisbury's Jeremy Forbis and two-out single by Van der Poel created an RBI opportunity for Tonseth in the seventh, but South rallied again.

"It was a pretty sloppy game," Miles said, "but we dug down deep and found it in us."