Staff report

ASHEBORO — Rowan County’s American Legion baseball team is a more than respectable 15-7 for the season, but is 1-3 against long-time nemesis Randolph County.

Randolph County Post 45 beat Rowan 6-4 on Monday in a game that was pretty crisply played for one of those non-division affairs. It was over at McCrary Park in under two hours after Rowan went down quickly in the top of the seventh.

Rowan pitched “staff” as is usually going to be the case in the non-division games, and Randolph still has its never-ending and lethal line of Marshes. Tatum Marsh, Blake Marsh and Tanner Marsh, who pitched the first three innings, proved to be a little too much on the field and at the plate.

Randolph (11-6) has been reinforced by Randleman’s 2A state champs. Randleman slugger Braylen Hayes socked a two-run third-inning homer, a no-doubter that was the biggest single swing of the game.

Rowan out-hit the home team 8-6, but Randolph bunched its hits together, with Hayes’ tie-breaking homer being the key blow.

Rowan scored in the third inning when Jackson Deal’s groundout plated Luke Graham.

Randolph led 6-1 when Rowan put together a three-run sixth. Aiden Schenck, Blake Hill and Elijah Palmer had run-scoring singles in the inning, and Rowan had the tying runs on base when the inning ended.

Zach McNeely stayed hot with two hits. Schenck’s running catch in left-center in the first inning was a defensive highlight for Rowan.

Casey Gouge and Jake Blevins have established themselves as Rowan’s 1 and 2 pitchers. No. 3 figures to be Casey Crawford, Alex Hagler or Nate Green, although that’s still TBD. It will be interesting to see who Rowan sends to the mound in tonight’s divisional game against Davidson County Post 8 at Holt-Moffitt Field. Rowan is 3-0 in Southern Division of Area III play.

 

Rowan          001  003   0   — 4

Randolph     003  030   x   — 6