By Mike London
mlondon@salisburypost.com
WALLBURG ó Salisbury right fielder Frankie Cardelle watched in dismay as Davin Lawson’s flyball cleared the 302-foot sign for a three-run homer and skipped off the roof of a car parked behind the fence.
The unexpected journey Lawson gave a baseball helped bring Salisbury’s unexpected ride in the CCC tournament to an end. East Davidson, which beat the Hornets 12-4 in Tuesday’s championship game at Ledford, jumped to a 7-1 lead on Lawson’s homer.
“That homer was really unexpected and took a whole lot out of us,” said Salisbury center fielder Russell Michalec, who wrapped up his career with a double, two steals and two runs scored.
A .122 hitter with one extra-base hit and one RBI entering the game, Lawson knocked in four runs from the No. 8 spot in the order to help end Salisbury’s season.
No. 7 hitter Tyler Lequire was also a problem. He went 2-for-2 with three RBIs and made the game’s best defensive play when he turned a hot shot off the bat of Forrest Buchanan into a key out in the third.
“Sometimes that production hasn’t been there from the bottom of the lineup, but it was a huge plus tonight,” said coach Dan Tricarico, who piloted East Davidson (13-10) to its first tournament title since 1995.
Neither team was supposed to be playing Tuesday.
East Davidson, which jumped from the No. 4 to the No. 2 seed for the playoffs and earned a first-round home game, dropped five in a row in a late April swoon. Salisbury (7-17) looked ready to pack up its uniforms when it concluded the regular season with a 14-0 beating from Ledford and a 4-1 loss to North Rowan on Senior Night.
“When we got on the bus to play Central Davidson in the first round, the only people who thought we had any chance were the players,” Salisbury coach Scott Maddox said. “When we went to play Providence Grove in the semis, only the players and their parents thought we had a chance. I’m proud we went as far as we did. It would’ve been easy for our guys to pack it in a week ago.”
Salisbury didn’t pack it in Tuesday, but it was running low on magic and looked like a No. 7 seed. The Hornets stranded 11 runners and gift-wrapped 11 unearned runs with failures of execution in the infield that extended devastating innings.
East Davidson’s third inning was the key. Kevin Michael’s bouncer to the right side started it. Second baseman John Knox had a routine play, but first baseman Jeremy Forbis ranged wide to field the ball, then missed connections with Buchanan, the pitcher, who was trying to cover first.
Failing to get that first out led to a major mess ó a two-out single by Lequire, followed by Lawson’s homer. Instead of a 2-1 deficit, it was 7-1.
Salisbury left the bases loaded in the second, but it picked up a run in the third inning on Jordan Fuller’s nice bunt with Michalec at third.
The Hornets slapped five hits and scored three runs in the fourth. Knox’s triple ignited the inning, and Philip Tonseth, Michalec, Kyle Wolfe and Buchanan also contributed hits against East Davidson ace Ryan Coleman. Coleman struck out Cardelle to strand two runners.
East Davidson ended the suspense with a five-run fifth against Tonseth. The lefty should have escaped with just one run scoring, but a critical miscommunication at second prolonged the inning, and then the Hornets didn’t manage their emotions very well.
Salisbury loaded the bases in the seventh, but Coleman ended the game with two Ks to raise his record to 7-1.
“It was a tough year with adversity starting all the way back in the summer, and then we had a bunch of young guys who couldn’t catch a break for the longest time,” Maddox said. “We slid for a while, but we were playing pretty well at the end.”
The Hornets did give their fans two unexpected victories before running out of gas.
“I guess that was the beauty of it,” Michalec said. “We weren’t even supposed be in the championship game.”
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NOTE: It was a small surprise that Coleman pitched Tuesday, with the playoffs starting Friday and East Davidson already assured a berth.
“We went with our No. 1 because we wanted this tournament championship and we wanted that No. 2 seed and the home game that came with it,” Tricarico said. “Keaton Hawks (5-3) is our No. 2 guy, and we believe he’ll do a good job Friday.
“If you’re going to do anything in the playoffs, you’ve got to win with your 1 and your 2, in whatever order you use them.”