Staff report

NEWBERRY, S.C. — Eleven walks and four hit batsmen keyed Rowan County’s offense, but no one was complaining.

Rowan outscored Chapin-Newberry 12-9 in its second game on Friday night in American Legion baseball’s North Carolina/South Carolina Challenge.

It was a wild contest. Rowan sent 46 batters to the plate in a seven-inning marathon. Rowan (13-5) stranded 13 baserunners but still managed to come out on top.

The most significant development for Rowan as far as the big picture were the mound debuts of pitchers Cole Hales and Bo Rusher, who are going to have to throw key innings if Rowan is going to make the sort of playoff run that the fan base has come to expect.

Both Rusher and Hales also are important position players, but they’ve received an extended rest period from the mound after heavy workloads during the high school season. Carson (28-4) reached the 3A regional championship series, and Hales, who won 11 games, threw 1,129 pitches. Rusher threw 524 pitches — in addition to his regular catching duties for Salisbury.

Rusher pitched an inning on Friday. He allowed two hits, but he got Rowan out of a serious jam.

Rowan made two errors behind Hales in the last two innings, but he still was able to put two hitless innings in the book and two zeroes on the scoreboard. He closed out the win with the bases loaded in the seventh for his first save.

Wayne Mize was the most dependable bat in the lineup. He walked once and stroked three hits. He had a pair of two-run singles as Rowan jumped to a big lead.

Daniel Durham contributed a pair of run-scoring singles. Both came with two men out.

One of Mize’s two-run singles came during Rowan’s three-run first.

Chapin-Newberry (3-5) came right back with three runs in the bottom of the first, and Rowan lefty Daniel Sell didn’t survive the inning.

Winning pitcher Jonathan Spry relieved Sell, got the third out in the first and went to work. He mowed down Chapin-Newberry hitters in the second, third and fourth, as Rowan pushed its lead to 10-3.

Mize thumped another two-run single to highlight Rowan’s four-run second inning that knocked out Chapin-Newberry starter Daniel Consola.

Other than that, most of Rowan’s damage was fueled by free passes.

Rowan put up two more runs in the fifth to extend its lead to 12-3 and was thinking about achieving the 10-run rule and getting some rest, but Chapin-Newberry scored six times in the bottom of the fifth to make things exciting.

Spry tired and walked the first two men he faced in that ugly fifth, and Rowan reliever Scout Nichols was greeted with a double by Chase Hood. Nichols faced four batters without recording an out. It was 12-6 when Rusher relieved Nichols with the bases loaded. It was 12-9 before Rusher could get the last out in the fifth.

Then Hales handled the sixth and seventh, with a couple of strikeouts.

Rowan gets right back at it on Saturday morning at 11 a.m. against Sumter. WSAT will broadcast the action.

Randolph County and Cleveland County will take over for Rowan in the Challenge later on Saturday.

 

Rowan County                       340  320  0   — 12    9    4

Chapin-Newberry                 300   060   0  —  9    7     2

W — Spry (3-0). L — Consola. S — Hales (1).

Home runs: None.

Leading hitters — Rowan: Mize 3-for-4, 4 RBIs; D. Durham 2-for-4, 2 RBIs. Chapin-Newberry: Hood 2-for-3, 2 RBIs; Kelson Palmer 2-for-4.