Rowan Legion pounds Statesville
June 10th, 2007 Posted in American Legion baseball
Reported by Will Robinson:
Is Rowan Legion the best team in the Southern Division of Area III? They are playing like it right now. Rowan improved to 10 - 1 on the season by crushing Statesville Legion on Sunday night at Newman Park to finish off an impressive week of baseball in which they beat rival South Rowan with an impressive display of power, then grinded out a 9th inning victory over Randolph County, and smoked Wilkes County on the road on Saturday.
On Sunday night at Newman Park, Rowan got superb pitching from player of the game Cy Young, who pitched a seven inning complete game (shortened by 10-run rule), striking out 11 Statesville hitters in the 11 - 1 Rowan Legion victory. Trey Holmes and Justin Roland (pictured above) were in the middle of the Rowan offense. Homes reached safely four times, scored two runs, and stole a base. Roland had three hits, scored twice, and stole two bases, including home.
Rowan got on the scoreboard in the 2nd inning when Holmes doubled and scored on a Micah Jarrett single to left center, and then scored himelf on two Statesville errors. Then in the third inning Rowan started to blow it open. Weston Church drove a double to left field and Ross Steedley walked to put runners at 1st and 2nd with 2 outs. On a bizzare play, Holmes hit a grounder to the 1st baseman in which the ball went down the 1st baseman’s shirt, resulting in an error to load the bases. Jarrett made Statesville pay for the error, doubling to left center to drive in Church and Steedley for a 4-0 lead. Church plated Roland in the 4th to make it 5-1. A Matt Hall homer in the 5th and Roland stealing home in the 6th made it 7-1. In the 7th inning, Holmes and Jarret executed a double steal and both came around on wild pitches to give Rowan a 9-1 lead. Matt Hall scored on a DC Cranford hit, and Joe Kelser scored on another Roland hit to put Rowan ahead by ten runs, ending the game due to the ten run rule.
LocalReplay caught up with player of the game, Cy Young, who credited the defense behind him, his confidence in the offense, and his pitching at Wilkes Community College as helping him to throw consistent strikes:
“Well its me going out there and throwing strikes, not walking people, and letting the defense work. I know if I come out and give two or three hard innings (my teammates) are going to hit the ball for me…The main thing is location, (Wilkes) really helped me a lot on locating my pitches. Location is the key, if you don’t hit your spots their going to hit the ball.”
Good advice for any pitcher at any level, although Rowan right now is hitting the ball everywhere no matter where it is pitched, and will resume play on Tuesday, after having Monday off for Rowan County Schools graduation.
Season photo and video highlights are posted on the 2007 Rowan Legion TeamCard, and more will be posted on the Rowan Legion TeamCard as fans upload them.
Statesville photo highlights are on their 2007 TeamCard
