West Rowan’s softball team clinched a tie for first place in the South Piedmont Conference by winning 12-7 at Hickory Ridge on Thursday.

The Falcons (16-4, 13-3 SPC) have finished the regular season. Northwest Cabarrus (13-4, 12-3 SPC) will tie the Falcons if the Trojans win on Friday at dangerous Central Cabarrus.

“It might be a shared championship, but it’s a championship, and we’re excited about it,” West Rowan coach Jimmy Greene said. “The last two weeks we’ve played six conference games,  games that couldn’t have been any bigger.

“We knew we had to win every one of those six against some tough teams, and that’s what we did. We stayed focused, but we were loose enough to play well.”

West Rowan has won seven straight since a home loss to Northwest Cabarrus.

“We’ve only lost four games all season and three were in a two-week span where we had bumps in the road,” Greene said. “But our seniors [shortstop Hunter Gibbons and catcher Marissa Yow] did a good job of leading us back in the right direction.”

Junior Peyton Greene led the Falcons at the plate on Thursday. She had a remarkable effort with a two-run single in the first, a three-run homer in the third, and a two-run homer in the sixth. Greene also pitched a complete game with six strikeouts.

West Rowan led 10-1 at one point, but Hickory Ridge (10-11, 8-8) scored five runs in the fifth and fought back to 10-7. West Rowan center fielder Parker Greene made a catch in the fifth banging into the fence. If she hadn’t caught that ball, it would’ve been 10-9.

“Peyton didn’t pitch bad at all, but Hickory Ridge puts the bat on the ball,” coach Greene said. “We had a few hiccups on defense that hurt us in the fifth, but we didn’t drop our shoulders. We came back and made big defensive plays. Hunter made a diving play and [second baseman] Taylor Martin made some nice plays.”

West Rowan had 10 hits. Parker Greene had two hits and scored three runs. Gibbons had two hits, including a homer, and scored three times. Tyasia Jones scored twice. Camryn Nooner had a double.

Hickory Ridge had 11 hits. Megan Campany had three hits for the Ragin’ Bulls.

After winning the SPC in 2014, the Falcons entered this season wearing a target, but they defended their regular-season title. They’ll try to repeat as tournament champions starting with a Monday home game.

 

West Rowan     204   402   0    — 12   10    3

Hickory Ridge  100   150    0   —  7    11      5

HR — Pe. Greene 2, Gibbons.

W — Pe. Greene. L — Powell.