Prep Baseball: North Rowan 2, Carson 1

Price

By Mike London

mlondon@salisburypost.com

CHINA GROVE — North Rowan's Cavaliers stepped off the bus at Carson as 15-run underdogs and went out and beat the Cougars 2-1 on Wednesday.

It was the upset of the year, the decade and the century. It's hard to say which team was more shocked.

3A Carson is 6-2. 1A North (4-3) came in with a three-game losing skid that included two 10-run rule disasters.

"We came here today just looking to learn," said North southpaw Josh Price, who went the distance on the mound. "But then things happened, and we started to feel like we could do it."

Price and catcher Wesley Barker were heroes. Statues of those two will probably be erected in Spencer next week.

"We just wanted to get better, to play better, to make a good showing," North coach Rob Linder said. "But Price went out pitched his butt off, and I guess we earned a little more respect, winning against a good county opponent."

Gunnar Hogan's one-out RBI single made it 1-0 in the bottom of the first, and the Cougars were thinking about a big inning. But Price fanned Patrick Bearden and Barker's peg to third nailed Hogan trying to steal. That strike'em out-throw'em out was the first of three North double plays.

Barker said he was only able to hastily grip the ball with three fingers, but his throw to third baseman Kyle Munday was right on target.

For two hours, Barker was Johnny Bench. Kyle Bridges led off the Carson third with a hit and tried to steal second on a sweeping curveball. Barker threw him out.

But Carson stayed on top 1-0 behind husky starting pitcher Mitch Galloway. He fanned the side in the second and again in the fourth.

The Carson fourth was pivotal. The Cougars loaded the bases with none out. It was a situation where Price could have folded. Instead, he struck out Weston Snow. Then shortstop Tanner Brown started a 6-4-3 double play on Joseph Basinger's bouncer to get Price out of the inning.

"I was scared to death," Price admitted. "But the strikeout helped and the double play helped even more."

The turning point? No doubt about it.

"When we didn't score in the fourth — that was big," Carson center fielder Zack Grkman said. "That's probably what inspired North to believe they could win."

Carson coach Chris Cauble agreed.

"When you're playing a team that doesn't know if it can beat you, you can't let them hang around," he said. "We didn't take advantage of many opportunities, and then North started believing."

Galloway fanned the first two Cavs he saw in the fifth, giving him six strikeouts in a row. But he walked Jeff Nelson. Then Mason Jennings got an infield hit, out-racing Galloway to the first-base bag on a grounder to the right side.

Colton Fries entered the game to run for the burly Nelson at second, and it turned out to be a key strategic move. When Bearden bobbled a bouncer to third base, he recovered quickly and would have been able to beat Nelson to the bag, but Fries already was sliding in safely.

That error loaded the bases for Barker, and it was Barker's day. He served a soft single to right. Fries and Jennings scored. North led 2-1.

"He'd struck me out on a curve the at-bat before, so that's what I was looking for," Barker said. "I got a curve, and I just poked it to right."

That put all the pressure on Carson, and every move North coaches made the rest of the way turned out right.

In the fifth, Hogan was walked intentionally to load the bases, and Price got the lefty- hitting Freeze to ground to first for the third out.

Bridges singled to open the Carson seventh and took second on a sac bunt by Grkman, but Zubillaga grounded out sharply to short for the second out. After another intentional walk to Hogan, Price got Freeze on an infield popup.

When that ball finally came down and Brown squeezed it, the Cavs had pulled off a serious surprise.

"I would have to say that was the best game I ever pitched in my life," Price said. "But we did it as a team, and that's all that matters."