By Mike London
mike.london@salisburypost.com

BUIES CREEK — It’s back to the double-elimination format for the five-day American Legion baseball state tournament that begins Tuesday at Jim Perry Stadium on the campus of Campbell University.

That’s not bad news for Rowan County, which didn’t fare overly well in the pool-play format that had been employed in state tournaments since 2018. Rowan managed to advance from pool play to the semifinals in the 2018 and 2021 but failed to reach the championship game.

Rowan County didn’t make it out of pool play in 2022, losing two out of three.

Rowan didn’t qualify for the state tournament in 2019. The official Legion season was canceled in 2020 due to the pandemic.

Rowan’s most recent American Legion state championship came in 2016 as the second part of the back-to-back state titles the program achieved for the only time in its storied history. The 2016 team was the one that lost in 12 innings in Shelby in the championship game of the World Series.

The eight-team field for this year’s tournament is basically a who’s who of North Carolina American Legion baseball.

Don Hines of NCPreps offers constantly updated top-1o state rankings. The eight teams congregating at Campbell all are in his top nine, with the odd team out being fifth-ranked Randolph County.

Randolph is absent from the state tournament but will return to the field when it hosts the Southeast Regional at McCrary Park.

Rowan (37-5) is ranked No. 1 by Hines this week, with High Point second. Rowan won the Area III championship game against High Point on one majestic swing by Hayden Simmerson, who socked a walk-off grand slam at a point when High Point’s win probability was extremely high.

Host Fuquay-Varina, the 2021 state champ, is ranked third by Hines, but isn’t a standard host team as it was the runner-up in Area I.

Defending state champ Wilmington is ranked fourth by Hines, but has lost only two games all season, and probably should always be the favorite in the state tournament until someone can prove otherwise. Wilmington has won three of the last four state championships.

Area II champion Wilmington has won 13 state titles in its history, more than anyone.

Rowan County has won nine. That includes the one when the program was still playing as Salisbury in 1955. The other state championships were in 1969, 1971, 1984, 1993, 2002, 2009, 2015 and 2016. Rowan has won a state championship in every completed decade since the 1950s and will be striving to add the 2020s to that list this week.

Cherryville is back in the state tournament and owns seven state championships, with the most recent coming in 2011. Cleveland County (Shelby) also has won seven state championships, although five of those happened in the 1940s and 1950s. The only title for Post 82 in the last 60 years occurred in 2014.

Fuquay-Varina and Pitt County, which won the title in 2005, own one state championship trophy each.

High Point and Wayne County will be looking for their first state title this week.

Wayne County (30-6) is the first opponent for Rowan County. That’s the third game of Tuesday’s opening day and is expected to get under way around 4:30 p.m. WSAT will broadcast the action, if you can’t make it.

Pitt County (16-9 and Cleveland County (24-9) kick off the tournament at 10 a.m. Wilmington (16-2) and High Point (17-4) take the field at 1 p.m. The final game of the day matches up Fuquay-Varina (23-3) and Area IV champ Cherryville (22-12).

While it has never won a state championship, Wayne County — that’s the Goldsboro area — qualifies as a perennial power in American Legion.

Wayne County has been state runner-up six times. That’s counting three times in single-site state tourneys and three times from the days prior to 2000 when teams still played a string of seven-game series until there was only one team left standing.

One of those state runner-up finishes by Wayne County came in a memorable loss to Rowan County at Newman Park in 2002. Wayne County lost state-tournament championship finals to Cherryville in 2007 and 2011.

Rowan County will be playing in the single-state tourney for the 14th time in 23 years and has some momentum after erasing that five-run deficit against High Point to enter the state tournament as the top seed from Area III. The Area III championship was the third in a row for Rowan County and the 22nd in program history.

Richard Walker’s Carolina Sports Hub keeps track of Legion victories statewide and he lists Rowan County as the all-time wins leader with 1,894. Others on the all-time leaderboard are Cleveland County (1,510), Gastonia (1,453), Cherryville (1,429), Charlotte/Newell/Mint Hill (1,330), Wilmington (1,292), Rutherford County (1,040), Hickory (1,032) and Wayne County (1,014).

Rowan County and Wayne County have played the most games of anyone in the championship field this season and are the only two 30-win teams in the field. Wayne County took on an ambitious regular-season schedule and already has played everyone in the state-tourney field at least once, except High Point.

Rowan County brings a solid offense to the tournament.

Lead-off hitter JT Taylor was cooled off some by Randolph County and High Point pitchers, but the shortstop’s strong season has included 10 homers, 13 doubles, three triples, 52 runs scored and 49 RBIs. He has 42 walks to go with his 42 hits and he drew the walk that started the winning rally against High Point.

Third baseman Luke Graham doesn’t have the power that a conventional No. 3 hitter possesses, but he hits a ton of line-drive singles. After hitting over .500 in the high school season for West Rowan, he has batted .425 in Legion, with a team-high .54 hits.

Right fielder Blake Hill bats between Taylor and Graham and is hitting .355 with 40 runs scored.

First baseman Morgan Padgett is the cleanup hitter. After a very slow start, he’s gotten on track and is batting .424 with 33 RBIs.

Also heating up lately is DH Aiden Schenck, who is batting .312 with six homers.

More power is provided by left fielder Simmerson, who is batting .367 with five homers and 35 RBIs.

Second baseman Cole Johnson and center fielder Elijah Palmer have hit in the .300 neighborhood and have combined to score 42 runs.

Rotating catchers Matthew Connolly and Cameron Burleyson have been outstanding defensively and have contributed offensively.

Simmerson (7-0, 0.78) has been fantastic on the mound and will likely get the starting assignment against Wayne County.

Pitching depth is always the biggest question mark in a five-day tournament. Rowan allowed two 10-run innings in the Randolph County playoff series, so there are some concerns about how well the arms will hold up against an elite field.

Head coach Jim Gantt will rely on lefty Mikey Beasley (5-0) and right-handers Padgett (3-2) and Corbin Bailey (3-0) to give Rowan a chance to win their starts.

Rowan has won two out of three — 36-18 — since the single-site format was adopted in 2000.

The late Jim DeHart coached Rowan in 2000 and was 4-2. Gantt took over in 2001, and his teams are 32-16 in the state event.

 

2023  State Baseball Tournament

 at Jim Perry Stadium, Campbell University 

Tuesday, July 25 games

Game 1: Pitt County (16-9) vs. Cleveland County (24-9), 10 a.m.

Game 2: Wilmington (16-2) vs. High Point (17-4), 1 p.m.

Game 3: Wayne County (30-6) vs. Rowan County (37-5), 4:30 p.m.

Game 4: Fuquay-Varina (23-3) vs. Cherryville (22-2), 7:30 p.m.

Wednesday, July 26 games

Game 5: Game 1 loser vs. Game 2 loser, 10 a.m.

Game 6: Game 3 loser vs. Game 4 loser, 1 p.m.

Game 7: Game 1 winner vs. Game 2 winner, 4 p.m.

Game 8: Game 3 winner vs. Game 4 winner, 7 p.m.

Thursday, July 27 games

Game 9: Game 7 loser vs. Game 5 winner, 1 p.m.

Game 10: Game 8 loser vs. Game 6 winner, 4:30 p.m.

Game 11: Game 7 winner vs. Game 8 winner, 7:30 p.m.

Friday, July 28 games

Semifinals

Game 12: Game 11 loser vs. Game 10 winner, 4:30 p.m.

Game 13: Game 11 winner vs. Game 9 winner, 7:30 p.m.

Saturday, July 29 games

Championship

Game 14: Game 12 winner vs. Game 13 winner, Noon

Game 15: If necessary, 3 p.m.