By Bill Kiser
Salisbury Post
MOORESVILLE ó South Rowan’s American Legion baseball team learned a few things during Friday night’s game against Mooresville Post 66
– The Moors can really hit the ball, as they showed during a seven-inning, 15-5 non-league win over South at the Mooresville High School field.
– South Rowan coach David Wright has some personnel decisions to make heading into their Area III-Southern Division schedule, which begins Saturday night at Kannapolis.
“We were looking at some things tonight,” Wright said. “We’ve got some kids we’ve got to make some decisions about … whether they’re going to stay here or go back to the junior team … but we’ve got some ideas of what we want to do. We just had to see who could do what.”
Wright also got an eyeful of what Mooresville could do.
The Moors ó making their season debut ó pounded three different South pitchers for 16 hits, including three multi-run home runs during a team-record 11-run second inning.
Sam Allen belted a two-run homer, Garrett Braun added a three-run shot and Jon Crucitti blasted a grand slam to highlight a four-hit, six-RBI night for Post 66 (1-0).
“They’ve got good hitters up there, but they were hitting against 15-year-old kids,” Wright said. “They were trying to make pitches … but that kind of combination, the kids miss some spots and they run out of gas quick.
“Summer ball’s a whole different situation. That’s what these non-league games are for.”
South (2-3) took the early lead, scoring twice in the top of the second on Weston Church’s double and Walker Snow’s two-run homer.
But Post 66 responded, scoring 11 runs off eight hits, a fielding error and two walks.
Mooresville also scored a pair of runs in both the third and fourth innings, pushing its lead to 15-2.
Those extra runs would come in handy later on, as South Rowan fought to keep Friday’s game from being shortened by the 10-run rule.
South scored three runs in the top of the sixth inning off Moors reliever Chris Long on Randy Sheperd’s walk, a Church single, a two-run double by pinch-hitter Ivan Corriher and an RBI double by Joseph Basinger.
South had a chance to keep the game going in the top of the seventh, getting a runner on base. But Caleb Shore was left stranded.
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NOTES: South finished with nine hits, but most of those came from two batters. Church finished with three hits and Walker Snow added two. … Scottie Williams got the win for Mooresville, giving up two runs off six hits in five innings, with three strikeouts. … Braun went 3-for-3 with three runs scored and three RBIs for the Moors.