By Mike London
Salisbury Post
MOUNT ULLA — There aren’t many Rowan baseball players with the talent to potentially lead the county in pitching wins, on-base percentage, stolen bases and runs scored, but West Rowan senior Maddox Moore is a special, two-way guy.
Moore is 9-for-19 on the young season with a homer, three doubles and seven steals. His on-base percentage is .615 and he’s won two games as a pitcher.
A UNC Pembroke recruit, Moore doesn’t look as physically imposing as his West teammate Cole Blevins (UNC Wilmington) or East Rowan’s Harrison Ailshie (UNC), but he possesses dynamic tools. Moore, who is about 6 feet tall and 180 pounds, has excellent running speed, a whip for a left arm and a keen eye and patience in the batter’s box.
Everyone wants to swing the bat, but Moore understands his role as West’s lead-off hitter and will willingly take a walk. If he goes 0-for-1, but he scores three runs and the Falcons win, he considers it a pretty good day.
Moore played varsity ball for West when he was a freshman. Even at 15, he was ready for varsity as far as his legs and arm, but he wasn’t ready yet as far as handling the ups and downs of the game. He had his struggles at the plate.
“Maddox has always played like his hair is on fire,” West head coach Seth Graham said. “He’s wide open on the baseball field. But early in his career, he had too much emotion in his successes and too much emotion in his failures, and you’re going to fail a lot in baseball. That’s the battle for a lot of really talented players, being able to deal with the emotional aspect.”
Moore made progress as a sophomore, especially on the mound. The batting average was still low, but he was starting to show some pop with six doubles and he scored 19 runs.
The breakout came for Moore as a junior in 2025. He put together a colossal two-way season for one of 3A’s best teams. He batted .449 with a .561 on-base percentage and scored 45 runs. He was 9-1 on the mound. There have been years when he would have been Rowan County Player of the Year with those numbers, but the county was overloaded with talent in 2025. Moore was one of three All-State Falcons, along with Blevins and slugger Carter Durant (Catawba).
“Maddox has upped his game every year and he is still upping his game,” Graham said. “The key for him was he got better with dealing with the highs and lows you’re going to have in baseball. He was able to stay more even-keel. When he had success, he acted like he’d done it before and he expected to do it again. He’s still working on dealing with the failures, but that’s the hardest part for all the good ones. He has gotten a whole better at handling it, and that’s made a big difference for him.”
Moore grew up trying basketball and football as well as baseball, but baseball won that battle. As a lefty, it wasn’t surprising that he gravitated to the mound. He also was a natural center fielder when he wasn’t pitching.
“I’ve always been a two-way player,” Moore said. “I’ve never gotten to a point where I couldn’t do both.”
Moore has played travel ball as a teammate of Ailshie with the South Charlotte Panthers. While Moore is the ideal lead-off man for West, setting the table for mashers Blevins, Durant, Brody Pope and Luke Ponczka, he hit all over the lineup for the loaded Panthers, who tackle a national schedule.
“Playing for the Panthers helped me, a lot of games against top competition,” Moore said. “But you don’t really get to practice with the Panthers. The Panthers are constantly playing. So the biggest improvements I’ve made came from West Rowan practice reps. Coach Graham and the assistant coaches always have pushed me to be the best player I could be. I appreciate that.”
Panthers coach Scott Clemons was instrumental in Moore getting looked at by UNC Pembroke. UNCP’s long-time coach Paul O’Neil and Clemons have been in the business a long time and when Clemons recommends a player, O’Neil takes him seriously.
Morgan Padgett, a former East Rowan Mustang and South Charlotte Panther, is a junior at UNC Pembroke and has done well for the Braves, who are currently 16-5.
“I was just sitting in my room one day and Coach Clemons called me and asked me if I had any interest in UNC Pembroke,” Moore said. “I told him that I definitely would be interested. I went to a camp there and had a good day. That led to an offer. UNCP reminded me of West Rowan, kind of in the middle of nowhere, but it’s a really nice school.”
One of the things that Moore liked about UNCP was the team has multiple two-way players, so if he proves he can do both at that level, he’ll get the chance to continue as a two-way.
Moore, who committed just as the baseball season was getting started, plans to major in business.
“He’s got all the tools to have a great college career,” Graham said.
Graham coaches the Rowan County American Legion team in the summer months. Now that Moore has his college destination determined, he plans to play Legion ball for the first time.
“He’s an exciting player,” Graham said. “Fans are going to enjoy watching him.”
