By Mike London
mlondon@salisburypost.comLANDIS ó South Rowan’s Maverick Miles watched a 27-game, two-season hitting streak end Friday with an 0-for-4 against Concord, but like outstanding hitters are supposed to do, he simply started a new one.
Miles went 3-for-4, and South Rowan got effective pitching from Ryan Bostian, Randy Shepherd and Jesse Park in an 11-1 romp against Lexington Sunday at the South diamond.
South (9-3, 7-3) rebounded from Saturday’s lopsided loss at Mocksville and moved into a tie with Rowan County for first place in the Southern Division of Area III.
“Good teams respond after bad losses, and I thought we played really well,” South coach Michael Lowman said. “We swung the bats, put balls in play, made things happen by being aggressive on the bases.”
Lexington (9-5, 7-5) is in third place, but Post 8 has been smacked around by both South Rowan and Rowan. South won 13-3 at Lexington. Rowan outscored Lexington 30-3 while sweeping the season series.
“We’ve lost only five games all year, but four were 10-run rule games to those two,” Lexington coach Matt Griffin said. “We just didn’t play well. South is real solid defensively, they’ve got a whole lot more speed than we do, and they can swing it. Not to knock their pitching at all, but you have to think that’s the one area where they may not be as strong.”
South uses a committee on the mound most nights. Bostian officially made his first start of the summer. He also had a few shutout innings against Mooresville washed out.
“My arm felt pretty good, but I’m just not used to pitching very long,” Bostian said. “I got fatigued out there.”
Usually South’s center fielder, Bostian didn’t pitch this spring at Montreat, but he dodged trouble for four innings. Randy Shepherd racked up three strikeouts in the fifth and sixth. Jesse Park shut the door in the seventh to keep the 10-run rule intact.
Miles, who was helping the Region 6 team win the State Games gold medal Saturday night while South was losing to Mocksville, led off South’s first inning with a booming triple off Lexington left-hander Jordan Hudson.
The familiar “Tarzan yell” roared on South’s P.A. system to celebrate Miles’ blast.
Miles scored the first run on a wild pitch on a swinging third strike that also allowed Bostian to reach base. Bostian eventually came around on a passed ball for a 2-0 lead.
The backbreaker for Lexington was the top of the second. Bostian hit the first two batters with pitches, but a popped up bunt and a double play started by third baseman Julio Zubillaga limited the damage to one run.
In the fourth, Bostian stranded three runners when Hudson lined out to left fielder Dylan Walker.
South put the game away with a five-run fifth that included run-scoring hits by Brett Huffman and Blake Houston and a two-run single by Zubillaga.
The most interesting at-bat occurred in the South eighth when Miles ducked out of the way of an inside pitch and got a run-scoring single when the ball struck his bat and headed to left field.
“It was weird, like an ESPN blooper play,” Miles said. “I’m just glad I started hitting the ball a little better.”
For Miles, 0-for-4 was a slump, but he’s out of it now.
“As soon as that ball left Maverick’s bat, I knew it was down,” Lowman said. “You put the bat on it ó anything can happen.”
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NOTES: Zach Burkhart, one of Lexington’s better hitters, was struck on the elbow by a second-inning pitch and had to leave the game.