By Mike London
mlondon@salisburypost.com
SALISBURY — Salisbury’s baseball team got only seven runs from two grand slams, but the day still added up to a victory.
The Hornets overcame an early 6-0 deficit. They also survived the deflation of seeing one slam transformed into a three-run homer by a ruling that had coach Scott Maddox pulling his hair out, and powered their way to a 12-9 win against North Rowan at Robertson Stadium on a dreary Saturday afternoon fit only for polar bears and penguins.
“We’re all friends, but we’re also rivals,” said Salisbury hero Philip Tonseth. “Definitely a game both teams really wanted to win.”
The Hornets (7-4) entered it with three homers on the season, but the ball was carrying. Nolan Meyerhoeffer, Tonseth and Spencer Carmichael crushed pitches over the wall.
“Never hit one before,” said the West Point-bound Tonseth, whose fourth-inning grand slam was the game’s pivotal moment. “You were shocked? I shocked myself. It was a high pitch. I guess I put a good swing on it.”
North (10-4) was doing the swinging early. John Knox made his first start on the mound for the Hornets, and his day began with a Dakota Brown double, a Wes Barker single and an Alex Morgan homer. After three minutes, North held a 3-0 lead.
“And it’s not like John was throwing bad at all,” Maddox said. “They were just mashing everything.”
The Cavs kept bashing against Knox in the second. Matt Mauldin’s two-run double and Tyler Wyatt’s RBI single made it 6-0.
The tide started turning, however, in the bottom of the second. North starter Dusty Agner should’ve put up another zero, but Salisbury scratched two unearned runs, the first steps on a long comeback trail.
“We made errors, gave them unearned runs all over the place,” North coach Aaron Rimer said. “We didn’t deserve to win today, and they did. Simple as that.”
The third inning was wild. Misplays extended the frame, and with the bases loaded and none out, Meyerhoeffer launched a drive down the left-field line and over the 330-foot marker.
Hornets happily bounced around the bases, but in the celebration, Chase Etters, a courtesy runner for catcher Clint Veal, was ruled not to have touched home plate.
Instead of a 6-6 tie, North still led 6-5. Instead of a slam, Meyerhoeffer settled for a three-run jack. Maddox pleaded his case but to no avail.
Brown doubled to trigger a two-run fourth that gave North an 8-5 lead, but in the bottom half of that inning, Tonseth’s slam followed two hit batsmen and a single. It put the Hornets on top for the first time at 9-8.
“Nine runs should win, but we got behind in counts all day,” Rimer said. “Salisbury hit it, but it’s not hard to hit when the count is always 3-1.”
The excitement continued in the North fifth. Meyerhoffer, Salisbury’s right fielder, made a terrific running catch with the bases loaded. That turned a potential bases-clearing triple by Barker into a sacrifice fly for a 9-9 tie.
“I guess it was a good catch,” Meyerhoeffer said. “But Tonseth made the really great catches today.”
No. 9 batter Carmichael’s solo homer against reliever Josh Price in the bottom of the fifth proved the decisive blow.
“We’re a good team,” Carmichael said. “There were just a lot of emotions out there today, and this could be that game we’ve been looking for to get our season going.”
Clint Veal and Meyerhoeffer knocked in runs in the sixth to push SHS’ lead to 12-9. Pitcher Brian Bauk (3-1) did the rest.
After he relieved Knox, Bauk got out of a mess in the fifth by getting Mauldin, who came to the plate 3-for-3, on a harmless groundball.
In the sixth, Bauk pitched out of a two-on, one-out jam.
Things got even dicier for Bauk in the seventh. With one out, Brown walked. When Barker singled up the middle, Tonseth missed his cutoff man. That put runners at second and third, with the tying run at the plate.
North was in the part of the lineup where it really wanted to be — Morgan and Mauldin. But Bauk, a sophomore who is going to be a big star, struck out both sluggers on nasty breaking balls.
“I went out there to settle Bauk down after the error, to see if he wanted to walk Morgan, and he told me had it under control,” Maddox said. “Then he strikes out both of those guys. Bauk’s got grit. He’s so competitive that it’s like he gets ticked off at the other team.”
Both Tonseth and Maddox said this was the game the Hornets have been waiting on, and coming back from a huge deficit against a huge rival has to be a lift going forward.
“We’ve been good-bad-good-bad all year,” Maddox said. “This is the first time we’ve won three in a row. And this is the first time we’ve showed this kind of fight.”