By Nick Bowton
Salisbury Post
ZEBULON ó Trey Holmes and Justin Roland stood just past third base at Five County Stadium, Holmes’ right arm around Roland’s right shoulder as the two East Rowan seniors looked across the last field they’d play on as high school baseball players.
They looked like a couple of kids who didn’t want their high school careers to end, and East doesn’t want to lose its senior class either.
Holmes, Roland, Micah Jarrett, Matt Lefko and Gilberto Garduno all ended their high school careers Saturday with a loss to Rocky Mount in the 3A state title game. Led by Roland, Jarrett and Holmes, the Mustangs tied a county record with 29 victories and had the best East Rowan season since the 1995 team won a state championship.
“You can’t replace them,” East coach Brian Hightower said. “All five of them. Obviously, we have the Big Three, but you can’t replace the competitiveness, the character, the class and then the baseball skills on top of it.
“I mean, you can’t replace that. But you gotta do it every year.”
Sure, every season coaches have to find replacements for departed seniors, but this senior class accomplished more than most.
Jarrett, a center fielder who will play at Wake Forest next season, batted .410 and led the county with 39 RBIs. He also was second in the county in triples (four) and home runs (six).
Roland, a shortstop bound for Charlotte, batted .358 and led the county in runs (42) and stolen bases (26). He finished his career as East’s all-time leader in stolen bases with 73 and also developed into the team’s second-best pitcher this season. He led the Mustangs with a 1.02 ERA and went 6-0 on the mound, including a complete-game victory in Game 2 of the state championship series against Rocky Mount.
Roland blamed himself for a critical third out in the sixth inning Saturday night, when an umpire ruled that he ran out of the baseline. Hightower, however, insisted that his star shortstop had nothing to feel badly about.
His assessment of Roland after a stellar season and career: “I’m gonna live and die with J-Rol.”
While Jarrett had the best batting average and Roland scored the most runs, Holmes batted cleanup at the end of the season. He hit .286 as a junior but finished this year with a .376 batting average and tied Roland for second in the county with 10 doubles.
Holmes started his career as a pitching prospect but didn’t pitch much his final two seasons because of an elbow injury as a junior. He had to pitch the final 32/3 innings Saturday night and limited a good-hitting Rocky Mount team to two hits and one run.
“Trey was awesome,” Hightower said. “It makes you think as a coach maybe I should have started him.”
Hightower won’t have that option next season, when East will be hard-pressed to match what it did in 2008.
“We had a great season, with a great bunch of players,” Roland said. “We played good together. Second in the state’s pretty good. It’s just a great team.”
With its Big Three departed, East will have to rely on players like sophomore Noah Holmes and juniors Corbin Shive, Ben DeCelle, Zach Smith and Ethan Fisher.
Noah Holmes sat in a chair in the East Rowan dugout after the season-ending loss Saturday, his hands behind his head, watching Rocky Mount’s players accept their state championship trophy and medals.
Holmes, the last East Rowan player to take off his uniform, wanted to trade places with the Gryphons, but he wouldn’t trade the season he experienced as a sophomore.
“The only thing that could have made it better would have been this championship,” he said. “But we worked hard and gave it a really good run.
“It’s a great experience. Something to give us something to look forward to and work for next season.”
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Contact Nick Bowton at 704-797-4256 or nbowton@salisburypost.com.