THOMASVILLE — Catawba fans were stunned when ace Craig Brooks return to the mound for the fifth inning, but the Indians’ bullpen, with freshman Bryan Blanton closing, got the job done.

Top-seeded Catawba held on 4-3 against sixth-seeded North Greenville in the first round of the Southeast Regional at Thomasville’s Finch Field, but not before adding major stress to coach Jim Gantt’s life.

“I’m too bald to pull any hair out, but now they’re trying to make my scalp more gray,” Gantt quipped. “It was just a typical Catawba baseball game. We play a lot of nailbiters, and when you use eight freshmen in a game like we did tonight, it can get interesting. But fortunately, our freshmen usually come through.”

Catawba will play in the 3 p.m. game on Friday against first-round loser Georgia College in the double-elimination event.

Brooks threw 72 pitches in just four innings. They were scoreless innings, but he had to battle on every pitch. Foul ball after foul ball.

“I think he had to throw 30 pitches to one guy,” Gantt said. “They did a good job of fouling off pitches, and that’s what the good teams and good hitters try to do against him. He felt a little tight after the fourth, and we just weren’t going to take a chance.”

Brooks’ last pitch was a strikeout to end the fourth and was his 147th strikeout of the season. That tied the school record set by Brian Boltz in 1988.

“Craig gave us four scoreless innings, and we have a good bullpen,” catcher T.J. Wharton said. “We just had to grind it out for nine innings.”

Freshman first baseman Chance Bowden said things got quiet when the Indians found out Brooks’ night was over.

“Playing with Craig has been a great opportunity for me, and he’s a big part of this team, ” Bowden said. “It got real silent for a few moments, but then we decided to bear down even more and win this game,”

Bowden’s two-out RBI single in the fourth gave the Indians a 1-0 lead.

After Russ Weiker replaced Brooks and pitched a 1-2-3 fifth, Catawba scored three times in the bottom of the inning. The pivotal moment was Blake Houston dashing home from third with a straight steal of home. It was an unexpected gamble, with the bases loaded, and with Wharton, a slugger, at the plate with one out, but it paid off.

“That steal of home is something we work on,” Bowden said. “We know there’s going to be a time to use it, and when the pitcher went into a windup, Blake took off and pulled it off. That fired up everyone.”

Wharton drove a run in with a foul sacrifice fly to deep right moment after Houston’s daring play, and Dylan Richardson smashed a triple to the right-center gap to make it 4-0. After that, Catawba had to figure out a way to hold on.

Allen Staton blasted a two-run homer for Conference Carolinas Tournament winner North Greenville (29-24) in the sixth, a wicked drive that exited the park in dead center.

“Weiker was throwing that pitch just to set up his next pitch,” Gantt said. “It wasn’t a strike, but the guy still hit it out. That’s how good a hitter he is.”

Staton’s homer came after a walk, and Catawba took a 4-2 lead to the seventh.

The seventh was messy. Catawba needed three pitchers to get three outs. It was 4-3 when veteran Ryan McClintock got a groundball to end the inning.

Catawba (41-13) didn’t score after the fifth, but Wharton said it was mostly the fortunes of baseball.

“We hit a lot of balls hard at people,” he said. “I’m not worried about how we’re swinging.”

North Greenville’s leadoff batter in the eighth reached on an error, but McClintock got two strikeouts and a groundout.

That took the game to the ninth, and Blanton finished off things in unorthodox fashion. After a leadoff single, Blanton picked off the runner first. A walk followed, but Wharton cut down that runner trying to steal second. Blanton took care of the last out in style, with a swinging strikeout on a fastball.

“Blanton has a flair for the dramatic,” Wharton said. “But the way he’s come on lately, he and McClintock give us one of the best closing combos in the country.”

 

North Greenville     000    002   100  — 3   9   1

Catawba                   000    130    00x —    4   6   1

W — Weiker (4-2).  L — Frankoff (4-3)  S — Blanton (2).

HR  — Staton (11).