Staff report
SALISBURY — Rowan County’s American Legion baseball team jumped right into an Area III semifinal series against a strong High Point team on Sunday at Newman Park and took a 1-0 lead in a best-of-five series.
Rowan scored five runs in the second inning and won 6-1.
Game 2 will be played at Finch Field, High Point’s home park. First pitch for Game 2 on Monday will be at 6 p.m. Kendal Sifford (6-1) is the probable pitcher for Rowan. Game 3 is scheduled for Newman Park at 7 p.m. on Tuesday. Brant Graham (5-0) would pitch that one.
The series with High Point (21-5) is the key series for Rowan (24-6), as semifinal winners qualify for the state tournament in Cherryville. Union County leads Randolph County 1-0 in the other semifinal series. Union County won in extras on Sunday.
Connor Park (4-2), a lefty pitcher from Mooresville, keyed Sunday’s Rowan victory. He got 16 of the 21 outs required for victory by keeping High Point sluggers off balance. He only had one strikeout, but he didn’t walk a batter and got lots of ground balls.
The key moment came in the bottom of the sixth after Corbin Hales relieved Park with one on and one out. High Point scored a run and had the bases loaded, but Hales got a 5-4-3 double play to end the threat. That was Rowan’s third DP of the game.
Rowan took some pressure off Park with a five-run bottom of the second. Walks to Drew Pegram and Brant Graham started the inning. Gaige Scruggs was hit by a pitch with one out to load the bases.
Cole Blevins singled for a 1-0 lead. Marshal Faw’s grounder to first resulted in a force out at home for the second out, but Carter Durant belted a a bases-clearing double to the wall for a 4-0 lead. Brice Knox singled home Durant to make it 5-0.
Rowan added a run in the fourth on a sac fly by Pegram.
Durant scored two runs, in addition to driving in three, Blevins had a first-inning double and had two hits. He lined into a double play with the bases loaded in the second. Knox had two hits. Pegram extended a string of productive at-bats.
