By Mike London
mlondon@salisburypost.com.
Predictions that Rowan County would score 50 runs against Montgomery County were off, but for two innings it looked as if history might be made at Newman Park.
Rowan marched 23 hitters to the plate in the first two frames of the non-division game, and Montgomery (2-11) had to employ three pitchers to get six outs. Rowan’s six-run first was long. Its seven-run second was a little longer.
Included in those two innings were eight singles, one double, six walks, two sac flies, a hit batsman, a couple of wild pitches and two errors on one play.
Everyone who started had scored by the end of the second. The last starter to cross the plate was leadoff man Justin Roland, who came around after being struck by a pitch on his third at-bat.
Trey Holmes, 8-for-13 the last three nights, had three of Rowan’s 13 hits. Billy Veal, hero of Saturday’s win against Concord, had three hits and scored four runs. Justin Mock, who is batting .450, went 2-for-3. Micah Jarrett had two hits. Ethan Fisher had three RBIs with a bloop single and a pair of bases-loaded walks. Matt Miller, who got to catch for the first time in a game at Newman Park, went all seven innings and was probably happier than anyone. He walked twice and hit three line drives right at the center fielder.
“Just a few butterflies, but it was a great feeling to be out there,” said Miller, who caught one inning during the high school season for East Rowan. “I just wish I could have found a few holes.”While Rowan is (11-4) has been good offensively and will be even better now that Noah Holmes, Philip Miclat and Zach Smith are back from State Games, pitching is 75 percent of the game.
Lefty Russell Michalec got the win, although he was lifted in the fifth shortly after Jordan Hildreth’s two-run homer cut Rowan’s lead to 13-6.
Matt Hall produced a quality relief stint, but Rowan’s staff is still allowing 7.5 runs per game and most teams left on the schedule are much stronger than Montgomery, which has lost five of its last six outings by the 10-run rule.
“We’re not playing very well, but we’ve gotten some pretty good outcomes the last 10 ballgames,” Rowan coach Jim Gantt said. “We’ve just got to keep working. We need to get better at everything.”
Rowan travels to Clemmons to play Western Forsyth tonight.