East's Mason Phelps. Curt Fowler photo.

Staff report

GRANITE QUARRY — It was a walk in the park for a while, but a massive crowd had to do some sweating and fretting at Staton Field before it was over.

East Rowan’s baseball team held on to beat Lake Norman Charter 11-7 on Wednesday in the third round of the 3A state playoffs.

Top-seeded East led 10-1 after four innings and had to be thinking about 10-run-ruling the 25th-seeded Knights, but LNC never stopped competing and things tightened up considerably when the Knights put together a five-run fifth.

LNC (13-11) lost to East (25-5) for the fourth time.

While East didn’t have a flawless defensive game, the Mustangs swung the bats with authority. A two-out, two-run triple by Sam Blackwelder keyed a three-run bottom of the first.

Hunter Goodman’s line-drive homer, his first of the season, highlighted a two-run second as the Mustangs went on top 5-0.

Lake Norman Charter got on the board for the first time in the fourth inning on a solo homer by freshman 9-hole hitter Jordan Callahan, but that didn’t appear to be a serious problem.

East answered with four runs in the bottom of the fourth, with three trotting home on Phelps’ second homer of the season, to go up 10-1.

Brady Ailshie (7-0) allowed only one run in four innings, but they were adventurous innings, as he worked his way out of multiple jams. He allowed six hits and three walks. He struck out six.

Lake Norman Charter had the bases loaded with none out in the second, but Ailshie escaped unscathed.

He had thrown a lot of pitches after four, so East moved Phelps from third base to the mound in the fifth.

Phelps didn’t make it through a wild frame, but Julian Cauble relieved, restored order, got the last seven outs and finished off the victory.

Harrison Ailshie smacked two doubles for the Mustangs and added a single. Phelps went 3-for-4 with four RBIs. Besides the three-run homer, Phelps had a run-scoring single. Braylen Ketchie had a run-scoring single and a run-scoring double. Blackwelder had two hits and two RBIs. Keaton Walker and Zeke Stewart chipped in with one RBI each. Stewart reached base for the 16th time on a hit by pitch.

Round 4 will arrive quickly on Friday with East Rowan hosting No. 5 seed North Lincoln (18-8). North Lincoln beat East Lincoln 7-2 on Wednesday and also has knocked out a highly regarded North Iredell squad.