Legion baseball: Rowan rolls on with some help from Carson players
Published 12:00 am Tuesday, May 28, 2019
Rowan's Bryson Wagner makes the play at second for a forced out on Clay Dilday and throws to first base. Steven Smith 10 is in back. photo by Wayne Hinshaw, for the Salisbury Post
Rowan's shortstop Steven Smith gets a forced out at second on D'Jay Mobley and throws to first for a double play.. photo by Wayne Hinshaw, for the Salisbury Post
Rowan's JT Fecteau rounds 3rd to score as Coach Seth Graham watches the ball. photo by Wayne Hinshaw, for the Salisbury Post
Rowan's Cameron Graham makes a catch in shallow left field from his third base position . photo by Wayne Hinshaw, for the Salisbury Post
By Mike London
mike.london@salisburypost.com
SALISBURY — Luke Barringer’s first at-bat of the American Legion summer was a three-run homer over the center-field wall at Newman Park, and expectations for a memorable Rowan County season grew even higher.
The Carson players have arrived. They started entering the game in the fifth inning on Monday night. Cole Hales and CP Pyle also had hits in their first at-bats of the season.
Meanwhile, the guys who have gotten Rowan County off to a solid start without the Cougars, who went 28-4 in a school-record high school season, kept on producing. Jordan Goodine and Wayne Mize were stellar again.
Rowan also had one of its better defensive efforts, turning three double plays in an 11-4 win against a good Greensboro team that had Rowan on the ropes on the road early in the season.
Rowan (7-2) owns two one-run losses and a lot of lopsided wins.
Rowan scored in every inning, and five pitchers got the job done on the mound. Olen Stamper, the second of those hurlers, earned the win.
Mize had a sacrifice fly in the first inning and a two-run double in the third to stake Rowan starter Corbin Durham to a 3-0 lead.
But Durham ran into trouble in the third, walking the bottom two men in in the lineup. Lead-off man Alden Kolesar’s two-run triple got Greensboro (2-3) on the scoreboard, and Post 53 held a 4-3 lead before Stamper could get the third out.
Bryson Wagner’s run-scoring double got Rowan even in the bottom of the third. He scored on a passed ball to put Rowan ahead to stay, 5-4.
Steven Smith was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded in the fourth for a 6-4 Rowan lead, but Greensboro got a double-play ball with the bases loaded to stay in the game.
Rowan threw the knockout punch in the fifth. It was 7-4 after a walk, hits by Goodine and Pyle and an error. Then Barringer unloaded his three-run blast on a 3-and-2 pitch for a 10-4 lead.
Mize picked up his fourth RBI of the game and 21st of the young season in the sixth when he bounced into a fielder’s choice with the bases loaded.
Rowan had already turned double plays in the second and third innings and got its last one in the seventh to help our reliever Cameron Graham after Greensboro had started the inning with two infield hits.
Rowan hosts always strong Caldwell County Post 29 on Wednesday.
Greensboro 004 000 0 — 4 6 4
Rowan Co. 122 141 x — 11 10 0
W — Stamper (1-0). L — Ratliff.
HR — Barringer (1).
Leading hitters — Greensboro: Kolessar 1-for-3, 2 RBIs. Rowan: Mize 2-for-4; 4 RBIs; Goodine 1-for-1, 3 runs; Barringer 1-for-1, 3 RBIs.
