By Jordan Honeycutt
sports@salisburypost.com
MOCKSVILLE ó A good, old-fashioned pitcherís duel suddenly became a disaster for the Kannapolis Legion team at Mocksvilleís Rich Park on Wednesday.
Kannapolis held a 3-1 lead going into the bottom of the seventh, when Mocksvilleís bats exploded and led the home team to an 8-3 victory over a deflated Kannapolis squad.
ěWe ran into some bad luck tonight with an unfortunate injury and untimely hitting,î Kannapolis coach Matt Stack said.
ěDylan May pitched his butt off for us as he usually does, but our hitting was awful and we could never get pressure on D.J. (Webb). And as you know if you donít get to him early, you usually donít at all.î
While Webb did hurl a complete game for Mocksville, May seemed to match him pitch-for-pitch until he tired himself out in the sixth inning.
ěMan, I was hot and tired,î admitted May. ěI ran out of gas. I havenít thrown very much in a full game since high school ball ended about a month and a half ago and Iím just glad I was able to throw as well as I did. But we hate we lost, for sure,î May said.
Mocksvilleís Joe Watson finally got to May in the sixth with a towering solo homer that tied the game.
Stack relieved May of his duties after the sixth and handed the ball to reliever Austin Mace.
Thatís when the aforementioned unfortunate injury struck the visitors.
Mace retired the first batter he faced and then surrendered a triple to Tyler King and a double to lead-off man Alex Newman. He began shaking his left arm in pain and asked to exit the contest.
ěAustin is great in this set-up role and it was terrible to see him go down.î Stack said. ěWe donít really know what he did to it but Iím sure he will get it checked out tomorrow.î
The downward spiral toward a loss continued from that point for Kannapolis as its next reliever, Tyler Sides, had to come into the game cold and it showed.
Sides walked a man and allowed a single, putting [0x13]two men on for Mocksville first baseman Connor Bodenhamer, who smacked a three-run homer to left and stuck the ědaggerî into Kannapolis.
Though the hometown Mocksville players were able to come through late in the game at the plate, everyone was giving credit for the victory to Webb.
ěAnytime that we have D.J. on the mound, we feel that we are going to have a great chance to win,î said Mocksville coach Charles Kurfees. ěThe kid got down 3-1, but he has icewater in him and he never got rattled and instead, just continued to plug away at them.î
Webb did just that, as Kannapolis couldnít touch him in the final two frames as he failed to surrender a hit in the eighth and ninth innings.
ěI knew that once my team got that 6-3 lead in the seventh that I was going to go the whole game, win or lose,î Webb said.
ěPitching this season, I feel, will be much better as I know the hitters, but also the knowledge I gained from playing a year of college ball. Catawba has helped me out a lot.î
Stack, who is familiar with Webb from his coaching days at West Rowan, knew that this outcome was very possible.
ěI told our kids that the guy on the mound for them tonight would not give into them and that he was a bulldog,î Stack said. ěAnd would battle them to the end and that they better be ready for him. But unfortunately, they werenít.î
Kannapolis, now 0-2 on the season, faces a tough South Rowan team tonight at Fieldcrest Cannon Stadium, while Mocksville packs its bags and heads to Lexington.[0x13]