By Mike London
mlondon@salisburypost.com
MOUNT ULLA ó West Rowan’s amazing string of six consecutive NPC softball championships finally ended last season, but the Falcons looked like a team interested in starting a new streak Tuesday afternoon.
Behind the junior battery of pitcher Sabrina Stephens and catcher Alex Mills, the Falcons surprised visiting East Rowan 2-0. Stephens struck out eight and held the Mustangs to four hits.
East sophomore pitcher Chelsea White fanned 13 to lift her three-game total to 41, but the Mustangs (2-1, 1-1) couldn’t generate any offense.
East, which went 16-2 in NPC play in 2008 to edge West and Northwest Cabarrus by one game for its first title in a decade, returns everyone from a squad that reached the third round of the 3A playoffs.
The Mustangs are the favorite to repeat, but someone forgot to tell Stephens, Mills and freshman shortstop Sarah Perrine.
“East is such a good team, and they didn’t lose anyone,” Stephens said. “We’re brand new except a couple, but we made it happen. To beat them in our first conference game is so huge for our confidence.”
White struck out seven on her first tour of West’s lineup.
The first Falcon to hit a ball fair was Perrine, the leadoff batter who was at the plate for the second time with two out and none on in the third. Her opposite-field liner sent East right fielder Lindsay Smith crashing into the tight fence in foul territory that separates the field at West from spectators, and the ball came loose.
Umpires ruled Smith touched the ball in fair territory before momentum carried her out of it, and Perrine hustled to third base.
“Just one of those nuances of the field,” East coach Mike Waddell said. “At our place, Lindsay’s got a lot of room.”
Stephens followed with a squeeze bunt that went spinning into the moist dirt just out of White’s reach. Perrine easily beat the throw to the plate for the game’s first run.
“I got the sign for the squeeze, and it was like, ‘Oh, my goodness,’ ” Stephens said. “It wasn’t a great bunt, but it worked out.”
White had a 1-2 count on Mills leading off the fourth when the catcher connected loudly and ripped a screamer over the center-field fence.
“I tend to think too much and get behind in the count,” Mills said. “But on that at-bat I just chilled. No idea what she threw. I just saw and hit it.”
A mile.
Down 2-0, East pressed. Stephens kept throwing strikes. Her fielders kept making plays. Winter Heno’s one-out, opposite-field double in the fifth was wasted.
“Not sure where our heads were at, and our approaches at the plate were less than desirable,” Waddell said. “We got rattled a little bit by their first run and just weren’t the team we have been so far.”
East’s sixth was pivotal.
Kayla Kirk’s leadoff tapper in front of the plate nearly led to disaster for West. Mills’ rushed throw to first skipped, but first baseman Ashlynn Perry scooped and got the out.
West coach Elizabeth Clarke reminded Mills to say thank you out loud to her first baseman, and the whole West dugout chimed in.
Perry’s play got bigger when Haley Barrier doubled into the left-field corner. Without the scoop, East would have had the tying runs in scoring position with none out.
“Ashlynn has been a wall at first base,” Clarke said. “She’s taken balls off her shins that made me hurt watching her.”
White grounded out to advance Barrier to third, and Stephens faced Kayla Potts.
Stephens knew if she could retire Potts, she’d be looking at East’s 6-7-8 hitters in the seventh, but the battle was long. Stephens got two quick strikes before Potts fouled off a series of pitches. Stephens finally got her swinging at a pitch that was diving.
“They were wanting me to throw Kayla a changeup inside, but I’ve played a lot of ball with that girl and you don’t want to throw her a changeup,” Stephens said. “I think I had to throw her 10 strikes, but I stuck with curves until I finally got her on a dropball.”
Stephens mowed East down 1-2-3 in the seventh.
“Sabrina and I have worked together many a year,” Mills said. “The key for any catcher is to know her pitcher, and I knew Sabrina’s curveball was working. She was great today.”
West was shut out by Davie in its opener, but it’s 1-0 in the NPC.
“We had only one hit against Davie and made lots of errors,” Clarke said. “The girls were a little down, but I was proud of the way they came back today. Losing six or seven seniors, we’ve got a whole new team and we’re not picked as one of the big dogs anymore. But that’s good. No pressure on us at all.”