Staff report

SALISBURY — Still no homers, but Rowan County’s American Legion baseball team is starting to smack doubles and triples.

Rowan destroyed Wadesboro 23-3 at Newman Park on Tuesday in a five-inning game that didn’t mean much except the home team finally got back to the .500 mark at 8-8, after starting the season in a 2-7 hole.

Rowan settled the game in the bottom of the first inning, sending 14 men to the plate and scoring nine runs. Rowan had six hits in the first inning.

Wadesboro pitchers contributed walks and hit batsmen by the bushel, as Rowan put up eight more runs in the second inning.

After that, Rowan played everyone and cruised. Brant Graham (1-2) pitched three innings for the win. Evan Koontz started a 5-3 double play that helped out Graham in the third inning.

Connor Park struck out the side in the fourth. Eli Graham pitched an eventful fifth.

Some Rowan players just about doubled their season stats in the onslaught. Elijah Palmer had a double and a triple and drove in five runs. Nate Hayworth had three hits, scored four runs and drove in four. Hayworth, Matthew Connolly, Krys Hernandez and Luke Graham had doubles. Drew Burton had a triple.

Luke Graham had two hits and three RBIs before the first inning was in the books.

Rowan will get back to serious business on Wednesday night when Kannapolis visits. That’s a division game, and it’s just about a must-win game for Kannapolis, as far as making the playoffs. Kannapolis lost 5-3 at home to Mocksville on Tuesday to drop the season series with Mocksville two games to one. Only the top two in the Southern Division of Area III make the playoffs. Mocksville and Rowan are 3-1. Kannapolis is 2-3. Concord hasn’t won a division game yet.

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KANNAPOLIS — Kannapolis took a 3-0 lead only to see Mocksville rally for a 5-3 win. Mocksville scored the decisive runs in the top of the seventh.

Blake Gaffney and Conner Coy had RBIs for Kannapolis. Also getting hits were Daniel Savage, Colin McKissick and Wade Turner.

Myles Crocker had two RBIs for Mocksville.

Daxton Savage pitched into the fifth for Kannapolis. Shawn Sealey was the winning pitcher.