By Marny Hendrick

sports@salisburypost.com
MOCKSVILLE — Southern Rowan’s hot start to the Area III Legion baseball season got derailed a bit at Rich Park Wednesday night.
Mocksville righthander Drew Weibley stifled Southern with a complete game two hitter to claim a 6-1 win that took just over two hours.
A North Iredell product, Weibley is a familiar foe to the Carson and South Rowan players as they faced him this high school season with a lot more success. On this night, however, Weibley allowed just an unearned run, walked only two, induced 11 groundouts and 12 fly ball outs.
“I just started speeding up my pace and got into a rhythm,” Weibley said. “There were a lot of hard hit balls but I trusted my defense and they made the plays behind me.”
Southern Rowan (5-2) scored an unearned run in the top of the first as Tyler Fuller walked, stole second and scored on a throwing error by the shortstop.
Mocksville (3-6) finally got to Southern starter Dillon Parker with a single run in the fourth as Tanner Mathis singled in Nick Boswell. Post 54 took the lead in the fifth as West Rowan product Nick Collins singled and scored on a Karch Arey single.
It stayed 2-1 all the way to the bottom of the eighth as Weibley and Parker refused to give in. Post 54 then broke out the big sticks in the bottom of the eighth as Matt Vernon chased Parker with a long three-run homer to left. Blake Cauble came on to pitch and promptly gave up another dinger to Tanner Mathis that put the game out of reach, 6-1.
The way Weibley was pitching, however, it may not have made a difference as he retired 13 of the last 14 batters he faced over the last four innings.
“It all goes back to making adjustments,” Southern coach Ben Hampton noted. “We’ve had success this season hitting gap to gap and trusting our hands, but tonight we were out front trying to pull everything and didn’t make the necessary adjustments.”
Southern lead-off man Tyler Fuller who scored the only run in the first and had one of the two hits felt the failure to adjust was the problem as well. “I don’t think it was the pitcher so much because most of us have seen him before,” he said. “It was just not doing what we needed to do and make the right adjustments at the plate.”
The frustration for Southern’s offense was best exemplified by the 1-for-10 output from the heart of their order, Eric Tyler, John Daugherty and Ben Gragg. They also left six on base and lost a chance to take the lead in the fifth when Parker Hubbard was thrown out at the plate. It was the last threat Southern Rowan would mount for the game.
“Weibley pitched a really good game and our defense played really well, “ Post 54 coach Charles Curfees said. “We also finally got the big hits when we needed to. But it all starts on the mound. You get good pitching and play good defense and good things are going to happen for you.”
Mocksville pounded out 12 hits off three Southern pitchers with Arey, Boswell, Mathis Jose Carillo and Collins all with two each. Vernon drove in three with his homer while Mathis had two RBI’s with his home run and single in the fourth.
Fuller and Gragg got the only two hits for Southern Rowan but there were few other offensive highlights. They did swipe four bases on the night but could not capitalize.
“I thought we played well defensively and Parker pitched his tail off for us for seven innings,” Hampton stated. “We just have to learn how to adjust better going forward.”
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NOTE: Southern will head to Kernersville Friday night to try and get back on track.