By Mike London
Salisbury Post
MOUNT ULLA – East Rowan’s baseball team executed with precision at the plate, on the mound and in the field and harshly jettisoned rival West Rowan from the 5A baseball state playoffs on Tuesday.
“West Rowan has a really good team,” winning pitcher Harrison Ailshie said. “But we’ve also got a really good team. We came prepared to fight for this one.”
Fifth-seeded East (23-5), the South Piedmont Conference regular-season champ, was considered to be a 50/50 proposition to win the marquee matchup with fourth-seeded West Rowan (23-6), the SPC tourney champ, even on the road, but no one could have anticipated the shocking final score.
The Mustangs prevailed 11-1 in five innings.
Logan Bradley drove in five runs for East.
You don’t expect to win a third-round playoff game against anyone by the 10-run rule. You don’t expect to score 11 runs in a game that Brant Graham is starting for the opposition. Graham, recently named South Piedmont Conference Pitcher of the Year, usually allows about 11 runs in a season. You also don’t expect to hold an offense as dynamic as West’s to one run.
But it happened.
“Brant is an excellent pitcher,” East head coach Brett Hatley said. “He’s got three pitches and he can throw them all for strikes. But our guys had solid at-bats, just grinded them out one at a time. We executed up and down the lineup, from 1 to 9. We weren’t striking out. We put balls in play. We got bunts down. Things went our way.”
UNC recruit Ailshie is batting .600 for the season. He was intentionally walked three times, but after each of those free passes, East put runs on the board.
“I didn’t get frustrated,” Ailshie said. “I’ve walked a lot this season. I know my teammates have my back if they walk me. Those walks helped us have some big innings tonight, helped us blow it open.”
Ailshie hasn’t started often on the mound this season – he’s been used in a closer role – but Hatley gave the ball to the senior to start this one. The lefty only struck out three, but he didn’t walk anyone. The Falcons had six hits, but he kept them in the park – barely.
Ailshie’s friend, Maddox Moore, a teammate on the South Charlotte Panthers travel team, hit two screamers. East right fielder Braylen Ketchie caught one of them with his back pressed to the wall.
East made one error, but the infield was sharp. Shortstop Sam Blackwelder and second baseman Isaiah Osterhus, who made a sliding backhand play up the middle, helped out Ailshie several times.
“All I had to focus on was pounding the strike zone,” Ailshie said. “We were making all the plays. As soon as they hit it on the ground, I knew it was an out.”
And sometimes it was two outs.
East broke on top right away with a four-run top of the first. Bradley delivered a key hit.
West cut the deficit to 4-1 in the second when Carter Lefebvre knocked in Cole Ludwick.
It remained 4-1 going to the top of the fourth, with Graham starting to settle into a groove and the Falcons in it, but then things went sideways in a hurry for the home team.
No. 8 hitter Parker McGinnis singled to start the East fourth before 9-hole hitter Holden Frick’s sac bunt was so good it became a bunt single. When West couldn’t get an out on Osterhus’ bunt, the bases were loaded with no outs, and Ailshie was striding to the plate. A wild pitch made it 5-1. That also opened up first base for a certain intentional walk to Ailshie.
Then Bradley’s ground ball created chaos. East scored three runs on that play.
“I think the shortstop (Ludwick) just rushed his throw a little bit to second base, and then the ball got away,” Hatley said. “Our guys kept running. That made it 8-1. That play may have sucked a lot of the life out of them.”
It was 9-1 before the Falcons could turn a double play to finally escape the inning.
In the fifth, following a walk to Ailshie, Bradley produced the two-run single to center that made it 11-1, and the Mustangs suddenly were just three outs away from a 10-run rule victory.
Bradley has 27 RBIs this season, only one fewer than Ailshie, and is batting .367. Finding the right person to hit behind Ailshie has been a key to East’s success.
Ketchie had two RBIs. Bradley, Frick and Osterhus scored two runs each.
Bradley, Ketchie and Brady Ailshie, Harrison’s younger brother, had two hits each for the Mustangs. Gavin Loftis had a double for East’s only extra-base hit.
The Mustangs will play at top-seeded North Lincoln (25-2) in Round 4. North Lincoln beat East in a 14-inning game in last year’s playoffs.
East will go into that game with major momentum.
“We won a ball game played in a great high school baseball atmosphere tonight,” Hatley said. “The place was packed. We travel well and I think there were quite a few fans of Carson and South Rowan on hand since they weren’t playing. Our guys performed really well. We beat a good team. West Rowan has one of the best lineups I’ve seen, probably the strongest West has had since 2004 (West was 29-5 that year and reached the state championship series).”
The Falcons socked 27 homers this season. The 2004 Falcons hit 26.
Hatley hit three of those 26. He was one of the standouts on that 2004 team.
East 400 52 – 11
West 010 00 – 1
W – H. Ailshie (2-1). L – Graham (8-2).
HR – None.
