By MIke London
Salisbury Post
CHERRYVILLE — Rowan County’s American Legion baseball team tried to make some program history on Wednesday, but fell short.
Rowan County has won four American Legion state tournaments since Legion adopted a single-site tournament format in 2000, but all four came in tournaments in which Rowan reached the last day undefeated. Rowan tried to make a run this time after losing in the first round, and that’s difficult to do.
Rowan managed to win elimination games three days in a row, but still had to beat Garner and Asheville on Wednesday at Cherryville’s Buck Fraley Field to pull off the mission. Dreams died early in the day, as Garner out-pitched, out-hit and out-fielded Rowan and took a 12-5 victory.
Hayden Fones hit a three-run homer with two outs in the top of the fourth off Kendal Sifford (8-3) to suddenly turn a 3-2 Garner lead into a 6-2 cushion. That was the key blow of the game. Rowan got back as close as 6-5, but never got all the way back, and Garner won going away down the stretch, constantly adding on runs. Garner (28-3) scored in six different innings.
Fones, who also had a triple and closed the game on the mound, may have earned a place on Rowan’s all-time opponents team.
Marshal Faw relieved Sifford after the fourth-inning homer. Neither Faw nor Sifford got a lot of help from Rowan’s defense, which has usually been reliable. Several ground balls were potential double plays, but Rowan (29-11) didn’t convert any of them, getting either one out or none.
Rowan’s offense in its final game of the summer was primarily 3-hitter Carter Durant. The slugging second baseman produced two-run singles in the third and fourth. The first one cut a 3-0 deficit to 3-2. The second one got Rowan within 6-5. The only other Rowan RBI came when Faw was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded in front of Durant’s second single.
Cam Williamson stayed hot and had two hits, including a second-inning double.
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Rowan won state tournaments as the host team at Newman Park in 2002 and 2015 and won at Wingate (Union County hosted) in 2016. Rowan sailed through those three tourneys without a setback. In the 2009 state tourney hosted by Pitt County, Rowan went undefeated until losing to Shelby on the final day, but Rowan bounced back to beat Shelby for the state title.
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Cole Blevins had one hit on Wednesday and scored twice. He batted .455 with 50 runs and 43 RBIs out of the lead-off spot. He had four homers, four triples and 12 doubles. Faw batted .411 with 32 runs and 30 RBIs. Durant batted .397 with 47 RBIs. They batted 1-2-3 for coach Seth Graham for a reason and supplied a high percentage of Rowan’s offense.
Sifford won eight games, while Brant Graham and Connor Park won six games apiece. Graham posted an ERA of 0.77.
