By Mike London
Salisbury Post
SALISBURY — After Rowan County American Legion pitcher Connor Park silenced High Point hitters to win the first game of the best-of-5 Area III semifinals at Newman Park, Park asked head coach Seth Graham if he could have the High Point lineup card as a keepsake.
“I was just going to throw it away, so I told him sure he could have it,” Graham said. “It kind of surprised me, at first, when he asked for it, but it let me know just how special it was to him to have pitched so well in such a big game. That game meant an awful lot to him.”
Park, a rising senior at Mooresville High, is a finesse lefty, a 6-foot-1 southpaw who pitches to contact and lives on the corners. He doesn’t overpower anyone, but he pitches with his head and his heart. He probably wanted to preserve that lineup card forever because he didn’t know if he’d ever hear an ovation from fans like that again in his life.
Rowan won Game 2 for a 2-0 lead in the series, and could have won Games 3 and 4, but didn’t. Game 3 got away in the seventh. Game 4 should have been won in the eighth. Instead it was lost in the ninth after the international tiebreaker rule was applied, with the teams starting the inning with a runner at second base.
“I really thought we’d win it once we got to extra innings because we had more available arms than they did,” Graham said. “But when it went to the international tiebreaker, we were at the bottom of our lineup and they were at the top of theirs, and things just bounced their way. But I told the guys after we lost that fourth game at Finch Field that things happen for a reason. There had to be a reason we were going back to Newman Park for Game 5 to play in front of the fans who have supported us so well all summer.”
Maybe Park was that reason. He got to do it all over again.
He was even better in Game 5 than he had been in Game 1, allowing four hits, two walks and one run to a power-hitting team. Left fielder Marshal Faw and center fielder Brice Knox had to sprint to the warning track a few times, but they made the plays for him. Third baseman Corbin Hales gobbled up ground balls for him. Luke Ponczka scooped throws at first base. Catcher Gaige Scruggs kept balls in the dirt in front of him.
Park had a secure 7-1 lead when he walked the first batter in the top of the seventh, and when the call to the Rowan bullpen was made, Park got to hear an ovation three times as loud as the one he received in Game 1. He broke into a grin wider than Luke Ponczka’s shoulders, as he walked off the mound. He’d decided the game and the series, and he knew it. Everyone knew it. Every person in Newman Park was standing for Park because Rowan County was back in the state tournament.
There were other good reasons why Rowan had to play the maximum five games in the series.
Ponczka had been struggling to find holes with men on base throughout the series, but he drove in three runs in Game 5, and his first-inning, two-run double with two outs was the biggest hit of the game. He probably feels like he’s shed a 200-pound monkey from his back.
Faw was the victim of High Point’s Game 3 rally. This time there was no drama when he trotted in from left field to take over mound duties. High Point went down 1-2-3 against him with two strikeouts. If Faw had lost any confidence in Game 3, he’s got his swagger back.
And then there was Cameron Williamson. He’s basically a second baseman and he wasn’t going to get to play second base much this summer because Carter Durant is Rowan’s 3-hole hitter and Durant is also a second baseman. But Williamson stuck with the team and became the backup catcher Rowan desperately needed and he also gets at-bats as the DH. He produced two run-scoring hits in Game 5, including the two-out double that pushed a 4-1 lead to 6-1. Willamson got to hear the roars from the crowd, as well. Call it a well-deserved reward for staying the course.
Graham offered some insights on Rowan’s Game 5 victory. He says it actually started in Game 4 after Rowan played two innings that were pretty brutal to dig a 7-1 hole.
“I told the guys that there was a good chance that we’d just lost the game in the first inning,” Graham said. “But I told them that we needed to continue to fight, to make High Point use as many pitchers as we could. Chase Fisher came in and pitched great for us, and we fought at the plate. We got all the way back to 7-7 in the seventh inning. They beat us in extra innings, but it was important that we didn’t just lay down when we got down six runs. They had to use several relief pitchers to beat us, and those guys weren’t available for them in Game 5.”
Graham said that despite back-to-back painful losses, he was confident going into the decisive fifth game, even with Rowan’s season on the brink. Park pitches really well at Newman Park and he could sense that the players were ready to back him up and to hit against a tough High Point lefty.
“You heard (previous Rowan Legion coach) Jim Gantt say it every year,” Graham said. “You get to this point in the season and it’s all about who wants to keep playing. I could see how much our guys wanted the game. You could see it in their eyes.”
Rowan took charge early, and now Rowan has qualified for another state tournament. The single-site American Legion state tournament has been around since 2000. Rowan has been part of it a lot more often than not. This will be Rowan’s 15th time in the state event. Rowan’s most recent state title was in 2016. Cherryville is the host this year.
The state field will include Cherryville, Asheville, Wilmington, Beulaville, Pitt County, Garner, Rowan County and Union County.
Rowan County will host Union County at Newman Park in a single game on Sunday at 7 p.m. to decide the Area III championship and to determine their seeding for the state tournament.
“Even though both teams have qualified for the state, I do think there’s value to winning the Area III championship,” Graham said. “If you win, you’re playing a runner-up in the first round of the state instead of an area champion. I know our guys want to win it, especially playing at home in front of the fans who have been there all year for them. We know Union County is a very good team that draws from an area with great baseball schools. Still, I don’t know if there’s anyone in the state that can be much better than High Point.”
Kendal Sifford will start the Area III championship game on the mound for Rowan, although Graham is determined not to over-use him.
“Kendal needs to pitch, so we’ll run him out there,” Graham said. “He will start. But we’ve got some guys who really need some action before the state tournament. Durant needs to pitch. (Cole) Blevins needs to pitch.”
Rowan (26-8) has hit only five homers all season — the remodeled Newman Park has become a pitcher’s paradise at the Legion level — but they’ve bashed quite a few doubles and drawn a ton of walks and they’ve scored an ample amount of runs to go along with solid pitching and defense.
Blevins, a UNC Wilmington commit who plays right field or center, is the leading hitter. He’s batting .440 and leads the team in runs scored (40) and RBIs (37). He leads in RBIs despite leading off. He has three homers, three triples and 10 doubles.
Faw, the left fielder, is batting .407 after a strong series against High Point. He has eight doubles and has scored 22 runs while driving in 24.
Durant is batting .379 with 32 RBIs and leads the team with 12 doubles.
Scruggs is batting .338. He’s scored 23 runs while usually batting ninth.
The other standard starters are Knox (.296) in center, Corbin Hales (.136) at third base, Eli Graham (.320) at shortstop and Ponczka (.319, 9 doubles) at first base. Williamson (.264), Drew Pegram (.255) and Brant Graham (.176) get DH at-bats. Pegram is in right field some, and Graham has played some at the infield corners.
The pitching rotation is Sifford (7-1, 0.86 ERA), Brant Graham (5-0, 0.58), Park (5-2, 1.21) and Eli Graham (2-0, 1.28).
Most frequently used relievers have been Fisher (1-0, 0.87), Faw (2-2, 2.90), Hales (2-0, 1.95 ) and Ponczka (1-1, 0.00), although Durant and Blevins will probably get state-tournament action if Rowan makes a run.
Faw has three saves, while Fisher has two. Ponczka and Durant have one each.
It’s an unusual Rowan team, with two-thirds of the players from West Rowan. Faw and Pegram are from South Rowan; Sifford, Hales and Williamson are from Carson, and Park is from Mooresville.
“Not having East Rowan guys was definitely a concern,” Coach Graham said. “And not having Jim Gantt was a concern. As a coaching staff, we’re constantly asking ourselves, ‘What would Coach Gantt do?’ when the tough situations come up. But we’ve got a really good group of guys. They’re proud to be representing Rowan County in the state tournament.”
