Prep baseball: North Rowan sweeps Salisbury
Published 10:43 pm Thursday, April 9, 2015
SPENCER — It was enough to make your head spin — unless, of course, your name is Aaron Rimer.
North Rowan’s head coach was one of the few onlookers who found sanity in Thursday’s dizzying 13-12 Central Carolina Conference win against visiting Salisbury.
“We’re 4-0 and couldn’t be happier,” Rimer chirped after the Cavaliers (8-6, 4-0 CCC) moved into a tie for first in the league standings.
That followed a game that included 23 walks, five hit batsmen, five wild pitches, a plate umpire with a tight strike zone and a 35-minute rain delay. North Rowan overcame a 6-0 first-inning deficit, then stormed a head 11-6 after three.
Salisbury (9-5, 1-3) rallied to tie the score on Will Steinman’s RBI-double in the top of the fourth — just moments after play resumed — before the Cavaliers notched the decisive run on junior Robert Monroe’s hissing, line-drive double into the left field corner with two away in the bottom the sixth.
“It was crazy,” Monroe said after going 3-for-4 with a walk and four RBIs. “All those baserunners. All the lead changes. And then the rain delay.”
It wasn’t pretty, but winning ugly still leaves a beauty mark. The beneficiary was winning pitcher Henderson Lentz, a slender left-hander with an arsenal of offspeed offerings. Lentz was the only one who seemed to have command of the strike zone.
“It was like I was throwing batting practice,” he said after yielding five hits but no walks in four innings of relief. “That’s what Rimer told me to do. I wasn’t trying to beat anybody or throw it hard. I just threw everything right down the middle.”
Salisbury coach Scott Maddox was as perplexed as anyone after the Hornets dropped their second decision to North Rowan this week.
“We go up 6-0 and we walk eight people in an inning and two-thirds with a guy (Salisbury starter Harrison Smith) who hardly walks anyone,” he said. “It’s just weird, hard to describe.”
The Hornets jumped to a big lead against Cavaliers starter Noah Gonzalez and reliever Lee Sells. Ryan Jones and Alex Yang had run-scoring hits and teammate Zach Bates drilled a two-run double to left. Alex Link and J.T. Austin added run-producing groundouts.
North Rowan responded with four runs in the bottom of the first. Monroe and Tyler Shepherd drew bases-loaded walks, Joe Harrison steered an RBI-single into right field and catcher Steven Thurston (2-for-2 with two RBIs) legged out a run-scoring infield hit.
Two innings later Monroe gave North Rowan a 9-6 lead when he punched a two-run single into shallow right.
“We had runners on second and third,” he said. “Usually in that situation I try to go backside.”
The lightning and rain arrived in the top of the fourth. Trailing 11-6 Salisbury had the bases loaded with none out and Yang in the batters box facing Harrison, the third of four North Rowan pitchers. Salisbury returned from the break with renewed vigor and tied the score, only to fall behind when Thurston doubled over the left-fielder’s head in the North fifth. The Hornets drew even again in the sixth when Link beat out an infield hit, setting the stage for Monroe’s game-winning double.
“It was a a 3-1 pitch,” Monroe said. “And right down the middle. I just focused on getting the sweet spot on the ball.”
Maddox complimented North for persevering and rallying from behind.
“But in a game like this, the craziest things are what end up winning or losing it for you,” he said.
Salisbury 600 501 0 — 12 9 2
North Rowan 434 011 x — 13 9 2
WP — Lentz (1-0)
LP — Austin (0-1)