By Mark Wineka
mwineka@salisburypost
FARGO, N.D. ó Brent Shive and I were standing on the concourse behind home plate, putting a ribbon on the season and this team of Rowan County players.
The spot was a good one for Shive, who was videotaping his son Corbin’s at-bats. I stopped talking when he brought the camera up to his eye as Corbin walked into the batter’s box in the bottom of the fifth inning.
This would probably be Corbin’s last at-bat in a Rowan Legion uniform, Brent said.
I couldn’t argue. Rowan County’s American Legion World Series bubble had burst and burst badly. The home boys trailed 12-0, and from Rowan’s perspective, Newman Outdoor Field had become a chamber of horrors.
If Rowan trailed by at least 10 runs at the end of the seventh inning, a mercy rule would go into effect, and the magical run as state and Southeast Regional champions would end more than 1,400 miles away from home.
Corbin Shive topped a grounder to the Midland, Mich., first baseman and was quickly retired. His father and I returned to our conversation.
I asked him how he would describe this bunch of kids who had faced a season-ending game seven times previously and had won all seven.
As with me and many others, Shive said he kept coming back to “resilient.” It’s something he called the Rowan boys all year.
“They’ve been in a hole many times and have come out it,” Shive said. “They’re a tight-knit group and all of them found ways to contribute.
“The hardest thing now is it’s the last time seeing many of these guys on the field.”
Neither Shive nor I gave the resilient Rowan boys a chance of coming back against the Midland team, which looked to be the safest of bets to improve to 4-0 heading into today’s championship game.
After six days in Fargo, Rowan would have to go home.
I shook Shive’s hand, and he wished me a good trip back.
Rowan’s half of the fifth ended quietly, and I made my way toward the pressbox, thinking it would be a good time to take out my computer and get a head start on this column.
A fateful walk down the concourse earlier had persuaded me that Rowan County had nothing left on this cold, blustery night.
Each Rowan fan I met had that look in his or her eyes that said it probably was over.
Every Rowan miscue and every Midland hit contributed to a Fargo nightmare as crooked number after crooked number went on the board.
“Rough,” Julie Litaker whispered to me.
Voight Basinger walked by and just shook his head.
“It’s looking rough, isn’t it?” Reggie White said, tapping me on the elbow as he passed.
I walked to the other end of the stadium, and things just got worse. Midland was strong up the middle and had the swagger of a team knowing its destiny.
When it was 12-0, it felt more like a football game in which Rowan had taken all the licks. Midland had scored two touchdowns and delivered nine sacks (hits), while Rowan contributed three fumbles (errors) to the mess.
“What do you think, Mark?” Ray Sansbury asked me in the concourse.
“Brutal, isn’t it?” I said.
“Geesh,” is all he could answer.
Darren White, an uncle of Rowan players Trey and Noah Holmes, saw me, shrugged and said, “Just got to keep battling, don’t we?”
Before the game started, White told me the best thing about the 2009 Rowan Legion team, then one of the three left standing in the country, was that it didn’t have any ego problems. They got along with each other, he said, and he credited Coach Jim Gantt with building good relationships with the players.
And every single player had a role, White said.
“They’re ready when it’s their time,” he added. “No one is sitting there upset about not playing.”
My talk with White had been 12 Midland runs ago. When I arrived in the darkened pressbox and retrieved my computer, Rowan had scored two runs in the bottom of the sixth and was still batting.
I plugged in, logged on, scanned my notes, looked up and Rowan was trailing 12-5, with nobody out.
A double-play grounder pushed in another run. A Preston Troutman hit made it 12-7, and a triple by Trey Holmes pushed Rowan to within 12-8.
I felt ashamed. The Rowan team was within four runs and still had three innings left.
They were somehow going to win again, I thought to myself, and I wasn’t the only one in the ballpark thinking this way. The Rowan crowd was up, shouting and clapping ó something you tend to do when your team puts up an 8-spot.
I made my way downstairs, first stopping by Brent Shive. We just laughed at how foolish we had been, writing off the Rowan boys. We agreed he’d have more of Corbin’s at-bats to videotape.
I tried to find a good vantage point from the concourse and attempted to think of a name for this Rowan team.
I couldn’t get my mind past well-worn titles such as Comeback Kids or Cardiac Pack.
I soured quickly on Heart-Attack Jacks and the Never-Say-Die Dudes.
I’d have to think of something because this was going to happen ó Rowan was going to win.
The next few innings are a blur. Rowan fell behind by seven runs again when Midland pushed ahead 15-8. Then, by the ninth inning and Rowan’s last at-bat, the team trailed by only 15-13.
Darren and Reggie White, Jimmy Holmes, Johnny Miller and Rusty Hiatt all fashioned rally caps for the ninth inning as they stood in anticipation near the third-base dugout.
The Rowan players also were up at the dugout fence, clapping and wearing their caps sideways for good luck.
They almost found it, but a fly ball to center ended one of the most eventful tournaments I had ever witnessed, thanks to these guys.
While Rowan was making its comeback, Tammy Buchanan told me what made the 2009 team special was that each player had something they contributed and each at some point in the season had made a fabulous play that he will always remember.
“Each one was given an opportunity to shine, and he did,” Buchanan said.
I saw that firsthand over the past four games in Fargo. Three of those games are the kind you never forget.
I knew now I had the name for this team:
The Fargonauts.
When they leave for home today, they won’t exactly be on Cloud Nine.
But Cloud Eight is waiting for them at the airport terminal.