By David Shaw
Salisbury Post
KANNAPOLIS ó West Rowan combined a terrific start with an exploding-cigar finish Friday night.
The result was an unsightly 11-5 NPC loss at Northwest Cabarrus.
“I don’t care how good you are or who you’re playing,” coach David Wright said after West (8-9, 3-8) committed six errors, coughed up a 5-1 fifth-inning lead and dropped its third straight conference game. “You kick it around like we did, you’re not gonna win. That was the biggest part of it.”
The Falcons made 12 errors this week in losses to Mooresville and Northwest. So while their bats produced 10 hits last night ó including Tyler King’s first varsity home run and a pair of Brett Huffman doubles ó they continue to drift off course.
“We’ve just been having some bad luck,” said Huffman. “We fell apart when we started making errors. I think we just need to keep our heads up and keep fighting.”
West unraveled like a cheap sweater against the Trojans (11-5, 7-4). Sophomore left-hander Zack Simpson wasn’t particularly sharp, but he’d worked his way in-and-out of trouble and allowed only three hits entering the last of the fifth inning. And that’s when the wheels fell off.
“You have to play seven innings,” said winning coach Joe Hubbard. “And for the first two or three, Simpson threw a very good game on us. But when other teams start making mistakes, you have to take advantage.”
Northwest began carving into its four-run deficit when Simpson hit Jordan Phillips in the back leading off the fifth. Pinch-hitter Taylor West then coaxed a four-pitch walk before Hunter Pate lined a single to right, loading the bases with none out.
“Right now, Zack’s a kid that if he gets in a zone, he stays in a zone,” said Wright. “But when he gets out of it, it’s very difficult for him to get back into it.”
The hosts cashed in when Ryan Overcash whistled a two-run double to left-center field, trimming West’s lead to 5-3. One out later Matt Mariano sent another two-run double over centerfielder Thomas Hester’s head.
Simpson was replaced by D.J. Webb, but before the smoke cleared Northwest added single runs on an infield error, a wild pitch and Ryan Lazenby’s double down the right-field line.
“We were doing great in the beginning,” said Huffman. “But then a lot of us started having off-nights.”
West committed three errors in the bottom of the sixth, when Northwest tacked on three insurance runs and pulled away. Hubbard, who used four pitchers to subdue the Falcons, felt a fourth-inning double play may have turned the game around.
“I think they loaded the bases with nobody out,” he explained. “And we got a speedy runner (Philip Miclat) to hit into a double play. Yeah, they scored a run that made it 3-1, but we minimized the damage.”
West jumped ahead when King ó a sophomore infielder ó hit Daniel Welch’s third pitch of the game over the left-field fence.
“That felt great ó even though it barely made it out,” King said. “The way we started out, I thought we were gonna take it.”
West’s other runs scored on a second-inning wild pitch, Brantley Horton’s RBI-single and Hester’s bases-loaded bunt single past the mound, both in the top of the fifth.
“That’s when we started kicking it around,” said Wright. “Up 5-1, you’ve got to make routine plays. We just gave them too many opportunities.”
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Contact David Shaw at dshaw@salisburypost.com.