Staff report

SALISBURY — Deacon Wike bounced back strongly from a shaky debut for the Rowan County American Legion team, and his teammates made it easy for him to relax.

Wike struggled at Stanly County in his first outing for Rowan, but he hurled four shutout innings, with five strikeouts in Monday night’s game at Newman Park.

Rowan routed Stokes County 11-1 by the 10-run rule. Catawba signee Wike, who won nine games for Carson, took a one-hit shutout to the fifth inning.

After Cole Hales and Wayne Mize got on base to start the bottom of the first, Luke Barringer crushed a three-run homer over the left-field wall off East Surry High lefty Eli Bullington, his second blast of the season, to put Rowan (11-3) in control.

Jake Harris doubled to start the second inning and scored to make it 4-0 when Hales bounced into a fielder’s choice with the bases loaded.

After Wike got Stokes out on five pitches in the top of the third, Barringer mashed a double to open a two-run inning for Rowan. Bo Rusher and Zeb Burns came through with run-scoring singles.

Rowan made it 9-0 in the fourth. Jordan Goodine singled, Hales doubled  to deep center, Mize singled in Hales, and CP Pyle got another run home with a long sacrifice fly.

Mize went 2-for-4 and is batting .542.

Stokes (2-4) finally broke through for a run in the fifth, but Rowan’s bullpen got out of the inning with only one run scoring.

Rowan had two outs and no one on base in the bottom of the sixth, but then five straight batters reached. There were two walks and a hit by pitch, plus singles by Daniel Durham and Goodine. Goodine’s infield hit plated Durham to make it 11-1 and ended the game.

Rowan takes tonight off and welcomes High Point, which has become a serious rival, on Wednesday. High Point lost 20-1 to Mocksville on Monday, but sometimes baseball defies explanation.

 

Stokes County     000   010    — 1   5   1

Rowan County    312     300  — 11  12  1

W — Wike (1-1). L — Bullington (0-1).

HR — Rowan: Barringer (2).

Leading hitters — Stokes: Nick Shoffner 2-for-2. Rowan: Barringer 2-for-3, 2 RBIs; Goodine 2-for-3, RBI; Rusher 2-for-4; Mize 2-for-4, RBI; Hales 1-for-3, 2 RBIs.