By Mike London
Salisbury Post
SALISBURY — Left-hander Connor Park shut down High Point for the second time in an eventful Area III semifinal series, and Rowan County beat Post 87 on Wednesday night at Newman Park.
Park allowed four hits and two walks, while striking out three.
Rowan won the game 7-1, took the best-of-five series three games to two, after losing Games 3 and 4, and qualified for another state tournament appearance.
Rowan will play Union County on Sunday at 7 p.m. at Newman Park, a single game for the Area III championship trophy and for state tournament seeding.
Rowan head coach Seth Graham explained that Park, a 17-year-old who is a rising senior at Mooresville High, is a perfect fit to pitch in Newman Park.
“Park has been very effective because he gets a lots of ground balls and our infielders know they’re always going to get a good bounce off the turf here,” Graham said. “High Point did hit a few long fly balls tonight, but you’ve got to hit it a ton to get the ball out of Newman Park now. This park plays a whole lot different since the renovation. We played our outfielders deep, and we told them to go get it, and whenever they had to, they did.”
Park (5-2) pitched for Rowan last summer when Mooresville didn’t have a team. Mooresville fielded a good squad this year, but Park was granted a release to rejoin the Rowan squad.
“Its worked out for him and for us,” Graham said. “They didn’t have to release him, but we’re glad they did.”
Rowan had plenty of offensive support for Park, even with Cole Blevins quiet. Blevins was 0-for-2, but reached via a walk and an HBP.
“When you get into an extended series, teams figure out tendencies and start pitching your best hitters differently,” Graham said. “But we had some other guys come through tonight. That was great to see.”
Luke Ponczka, the sturdy first baseman who bats fifth, drove in three runs, as did Cam Williamson, who was batting sixth as the DH. Marshal Faw had three hits, while Carter Durant had two.
“Ponczka spent some time talking approach with (assistant coach) Adam Patterson and they also talked about Ponczka not putting so much pressure on himself,” Graham said. “Ponczka has been coming to the plate with a lot of men on base this whole series, and this time he came through. Williamson did as well. They had game-changing, two-out, two-strike hits.”
High Point hit two balls on the nose in the top of the first, but Rowan outfielders made the plays. In the bottom of the first, Poncza came to the plate with two out and two on, and his double to right field scored Faw and Durant for a 2-0 lead.
Park had a smooth top of the second, and Rowan (26-8) got him two more runs in the bottom of the inning. Brice Knox walked with the bases loaded to score Gaige Scruggs. Blevins scored on Ponczka’s sacrifice fly.
Up 4-0, Park went back to the mound and produced his third straight 1-2-3 inning, and Rowan had control of the game.
High Point (23-8) got its first two hits off Park in the fourth, with Maddox Perez knocking in a run with two men out to cut Rowan’s lead to 4-1.
But there would be no High Point comeback. Rowan had an important answer in the bottom of the inning, as Williamson smacked a two-run double to boost the lead to 6-1. Williamson had another two-out hit in the sixth to make it 7-1.
Park made it all the way to the seventh. His pitch count was in the 80s, and Graham was going to let him go until High Point got a man on. When Park walked the first batter in the seventh, Graham summoned Faw from left field, as Park exited the mound to an ovation from a Standing Room Only crowd.
It’s not easy to transition to the mound from playing in the field, and Faw had been the victim of a High Point rally in Game 3, but there was no drama this time. The Catawba recruit got three straight outs and got the last two outs of the series on strikeouts.
“High Point is very good,” Graham said. “This time of year you can see in guy’s eyes if they want to compete or not, and I saw what I wanted to see. We were ready to compete. Our guys wanted to keep playing.”
For more on the Rowan County American Legion team making it to the state tournament, see Sunday’s print edition.
