By Mike London
Salisbury Post
MOUNT ULLA — Tune in WSAT radio for a Rowan County American Legion baseball game, and you’ll have to sort out multiple Grahams.
Brant Graham, who has been a sensational pitcher and part-time infielder, isn’t related to the other Grahams.
Well, at least not closely.
But starting shortstop and No. 3 pitcher Eli Graham is the nephew of first-year head coach Seth Graham, who has guided Rowan to a 22-5 record through Friday’s game. Rowan fans also may remember Lucas Graham, the “Hit Man,” who played for previous Rowan Legion teams. Lucas is Eli’s older brother.
“It was good having an older brother who played and it’s been good being coached by my uncle,” Eli said. “I’ve played for him for years at West Rowan and I’ve also been on the Legion teams for a while. I guess you could say he’s Uncle Seth when things are going good, but he’s Coach Seth when he’s coming out to the mound to take me out. He’s usually a little mad at me then.”
It’s hard to stay mad at Eli, though. He’s not a star. He’s not a Cole Blevins or a Marshal Faw or a Kendal Sifford, but he’s one of those guys that wins games by understanding the game and by being able to execute in the field, on the mound or at the plate in tough situations.
He wants the ground ball to be hit to him in the seventh. He wants to lead off the bottom of the seventh with the score tied. Stuff like that. Not everyone wants to be in that situation.
He is a master of the little things.
In Friday’s win against Liberty in the first game of a best-of-three series, Eli had a sacrifice bunt that moved two runners and he had two sacrifice flies. One of those sac flies broke a 1-all tie and gave Rowan the lead for good. He didn’t try to be a hero or do too much. He did whatever the situation called for.
“When you play for Seth Graham and play for West Rowan, you learn to be good at small ball,” Eli said. “If you can bunt and you can run a little bit, you can pressure the defense into mistakes, and those mistakes can decide a lot of ball games in your favor. Seth preaches little ball constantly, and we work at it all the time, so a lot of us are good at it.”
Eli was an All-South Piedmont Conference player as a senior, a .350-hitter who also was 3-0 on the mound.
“I hit at the bottom of the lineup, usually got good pitches to hit and understood that my job was to get on base,” Eli said. “Every time the guys got on base at the bottom, it turned the lineup over to those guys at the top, and our first four guys in our lineup at West (Blevins, Maddox Moore, Carter Durant and Brody Pope) were batting .400.
Eli has kept it going in Legion. He’s done more than hit sac flies. He’s batting .356 with 15 RBIs while usually batting eighth in the lineup. Brant Graham and Sifford have handled most of the pitching, especially lately, but Eli is 1-0 on the mound with a 1.91 ERA in 21.2 innings. He doesn’t strike out many, but he doesn’t walk many. His summer has included five no-hit innings against a tough Mooresville team in mid-June.
While he graduated from West this year, Eli’s baseball career and education aren’t done. He’ll continue to play and study at Surry Community College, a school where his brother has excelled the last two seasons. He’ll be going there with West teammates Brice Knox, Gaige Scruggs and Ben Koontz.
“I’ve had a chance to see a few of my brother’s games there and I liked what I saw,” Eli said. “It’s a small town with nice people and a good baseball program. I think I probably will play infield more than I pitch, but I guess that will all depend on my bat.”
Eli’s brother is a stronger hitter, but Eli is quicker and faster. The siblings got different gifts.
They also have different personalities. Lucas is a born salesman, who plans to take over the family business in Mooresville — Josh’s Farmers Market — when the time comes.
But Eli stays as far away from the market as possible. His summer work is on a beef farm.
“I’m just not a store guy, not really a people person,” he said. “But I’m from a baseball family and I do love to play baseball.”
