By Bill Kiser
sports@salisburypost.com
STATESVILLE ó With just one week to go on its regular-season schedule, South Rowan head coach David Wright would like to see a little consistency out of his battered team.
South didn’t get much of a chance to work on anything Friday night, as its Area III-Southern Division game against Statesville was called early because of a heavy thunderstorm.
Friday’s game was stopped in the bottom of the second inning with the score tied 2-2. It will resume at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the West Iredell High School baseball field.
South Rowan (11-9, 7-6) is currently in fourth place in the Southern Division standings, one-half game ahead of Concord and Stanly County, and a full game up on Mocksville and Kannapolis.
South Rowan is assured of making the playoffs. Wilkes County, which has shut its team down, and Statesville are at the bottom of the league standings, with no chance to climb out.
However, the question for South now is just who will it play in the best-of-five-game opening-round series, which begins July 7, and where. The top four finishers in the Southern Division standings get home-field advantage for the first round.
And with four games remaining ó now five, with Friday night’s postponement ó every one of them is important as the playoffs approach.
“Realistically, every team from about No. 3 down could finish anywhere from third to eighth,” Wright said. “It just depends on who wins and when. That’s where it’s at right now.”
However, South has one advantage going for it. Besides the Statesville postponement, all of its remaining games will be played at home: tonight against Rowan County, Sunday against Lexington, Monday against Stanly and Wednesday against league-leading Mooresville.
“It’s going to be nice, because we played so much on the road,” Wright said.
But it would also be nice, Wright added, if his team could overcome its injuries and start playing more consistent ball.
“We’ve gotten pounded the last few nights, and we’ve been bit by the injury bug,” Wright said. “We don’t know where we’re at pitching-wise, and that’s not a good place to be going into the playoffs.
“I know who our No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 pitchers are, and possibly our No. 4. In a three-out-of-five set, I think that we can play with anybody because we have enough front-end pitching. But we’ve got to be healthy when we get there.
“We’ve also got to be more consistent offensively. We’ve had spurts where we’ve been great, and we’ve had spurts where we’ve been bad. We haven’t done enough to supplement what we’ve done pitching-wise.
“Right now, we’re trying to play well, and I’m trying to find some continuity. If we can do that, we can win our playoff games.”