Staff report

GRANITE QUARRY— East Rowan’s 3-1 softball win against West Rowan on Tuesday was significant, as it stamped the Mustangs as the team to beat in the South Piedmont Conference.

It’s early, but West Rowan beat Central Cabarrus a few days ago. East hasn’t played Central yet and will still have to make the trip to Mount Ulla, but the Mustangs already have won decisively against Northwest Cabarrus and South Rowan, both of whom look like they can place in the top half of the league.

East (5-1, 5-0) has allowed five runs so far this season, with two of those coming in an extra-inning, non-conference game at North Davidson. East has scored 46.

East is ranked fourth in 3A West by MaxPreps. The top three are neighbors Oak Grove, Ledford and North Davidson.

East has been a good softball school over the years and enjoyed serious glory days from 2008-2011 when coach Michael Waddell had Division I players Chelsea White and Ericka Nesbitt leading the way to an 87-14 record. White and Nesbitt sparked East to four straight league championships. The 2010 and 2011 teams were good enough to make it to the Final Four in 3A.

East’s most recent regular-season conference championship occurred in 2013. Since then, East usually has been pretty good, but has always been chasing one or two or three teams, whether it was West Rowan or Carson or Central Cabarrus or Hickory Ridge or Cox Mill.

West Rowan beat East three times last year, while putting up a bunch of runs, so this was an important step for the Mustangs. To put the brakes on West’s prolific offense, meant something.

“It’s a good win,” said East coach Todd McNeely, who always is cautiously optimistic. “It was a tough game with West, but we grinded it out. This is a good league, there’s going to be a lot of tough games, and we’ve got to keep grinding them out every week. We don’t have any superstars, but we’ve got a good team. We’ve been hitting pretty well, playing good team defense, and we’ve pitched it really well.”

Tuesday’s game was scoreless for three innings. Lacey Houghton socked her first varsity homer in the fourth inning to give West a 1-0 lead.

East got only three hits against West’s experienced pitcher Arabelle Shulenberger, who struck out seven and walked three, but the Mustangs were able to scored three decisive runs in the fifth.

Kady Collins singled to start the fifth-inning rally. Camryn Perkins walked. East pitcher Madi Tigert got a run home with a bunt to tie the game. Eleni Miller came through with the two-run single that broke the tie and put the Mustangs ahead to stay.

Tigert, a freshman, pitched another strong game for the Mustangs. She struck out seven, walked two and hit two. She held the Falcons to four hits. In addition to Houghton’s homer, Taylor Keller, Kayla Burns and Riley Haggas had singles. West standout Emma Clarke put the ball in play four times, but the Mustangs made the plays behind Tigert.

West (2-3, 1-1) plans to play Robinson on Wednesday, while East will to go Lake Norman Charter.

 

 

 

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