By the eighth inning of the Area III Southern Division second-round playoff contest, Black’s uniform was a mass of grass-stains, blood and mud. His batting average was hurting, his neck was hurting and his head was hurting.

‘‘I just wanted an aspirin,’’ chuckled Black.

Quite a few things had teamed up to give Black Excedrin Headache No. 26.

Twice Black had been called out on strikes. And twice Black had been pretty sure the pitches hadn’t ventured anywhere close to the strike zone.

Twice Black had been a victim of the bizarre bank that runs along the fence in left and left-center at Holt-Moffitt Field. Once he had made a running catch only to have the ball trickle from his glove when he attacked the bank head-first. The other time, both Black and left fielder Eddie Guessford had gone down in a heap as they raced up the bank in hot pursuit of a long blast.

Worst of all, Black had let a routine fly ball fall in medium center in the seventh inning. He had lost it in the lights and when gravity brought it back to terra firma, Rowan had officially blown a five-run lead and found itself trailing Lexington 7-6.

‘‘Never saw it,’’ said Black. ‘‘I had no clue.’’

But Black did have a clue as he stepped into the batters box in the eighth inning with Nick Lefko (running for Shawn Trosper after a clutch single) at second base, Rowan down by a run and this whole series on the verge of making a U-turn toward Lexington.

‘‘I had a lot to make up for,’’ said Black. ‘‘I had to do something, because it had been a pretty frustrating night.’’

What Black did was exact the sweetest revenge since Rocky Balboa got back at Clubber Lang. Black jumped on a Chase Younts fastball and hammered it to that same left-field bank that had been his tormentor. Lefko scored easily and the game was tied at 7-all.

The next batter, Cal Hayes Jr., waited on a Younts curveball and drilled it for another base hit. And a smiling Black tore around the bases and cheerfully stomped on the plate for the run that put Rowan ahead to stay.

After the hits by Black and Hayes, Rowan never stopped swinging. At least not until someone finally turned the lights off at Holt-Moffitt. Rowan scored five runs in the eighth and five more in the ninth to win going away.

Rowan, which now leads the series 2-0, had been mired in a serious batting slump. Sunday night, however, it whacked out a season-high 21 hits and produced its highest run total since a 16-6 romp over Wilkes County on June 14.

Almost everyone hit. From leadoff man Black, who had three hits, to No. 9 man Trosper, who banged out three more.

Brad Canipe broke out of a funk by ripping a solo homer and two long doubles. He drove in three runs. Brian Hatley also had three hits, including a two-run triple. Guessford snapped a 1-for-14 playoff skid with three hits. Brett Peiffer, who had been 0-for-the-playoffs, had three solid knocks. Hayes added two hits and scored three times, and Nathan Woodburn chipped in a key RBI single.

‘‘I think we’ve been hitting our share of balls hard,’’ said Rowan coach Jim DeHart. ‘‘Tonight, we got a few more to drop.’’

Rowan (21-7) led from the outset when Guessford singled in a first-inning run.

In the third, Guessford snuck home from third while Peiffer was being thrown out trying to steal second. Canipe, only 2-for-14 in the playoffs prior to last night, then homered to center to make it 3-0.

‘‘We needed to hit and this time everybody got big hits,’’ said Canipe, who also had a solid game behind the plate. ‘‘It’s hard to explain. I guess, we were just due to bust out.’’

Hatley’s two-run triple bumped the lead to 5-0 in the fourth, and Rowan appeared on its way to a laugher.

But Rowan starter and winner Chad Walker, who had sailed through the first three innings, struggled in the fourth and fifth. In those two innings, Walker served up 62 pitches and DeHart and Canipe became frequent visitors to the mound.

‘‘Chad was throwing well,’’ said DeHart. ‘‘Give some credit to Lexington. They are a tough club to pitch to.’’

Lexington drew to within 6-5 when Jason Phillips’ roller hit the third base bag to score a run, and then got even when Blake Smith drew a bases-loaded walk. Then Lexington eased ahead 7-6 in the sixth when Gary Tilley scored when Black couldn’t locate Andrew Harrison’s fly ball.

‘‘They came back when we lost some of our focus,’’ said DeHart. ‘‘We – and I mean coaches and players – got tied up in the umpires. We fussed too much and didn’t do our jobs. It’s the first time that’s happened all season. It won’t happen again.’’

Walker willed Rowan through the seventh, still down only one run.

Then DeHart’s club absolutely exploded in the eighth and ninth for its 11th straight triumph.

Jimmy Haynes relieved Walker and struck out the side in the eighth and fanned two more in the ninth, but then issued a series of walks to trigger two Lexington runs. Jesse Boger got the final out.