KERNERSVILLE - It's rare that a 7-4 baseball game can be considered a pitcher's duel, but Aubrey Meadows pitched 31/3 scoreless innings in relief to lead Mooresville past Glenn 7-4 in the third round of the NCHSAA Class 3-A baseball playoffs last night in Kernersville.
Meadows' pitching was crucial, because Glenn's Kevin Parrish pitched three innings of one-hit relief to keep the Bobcats in the game.
Meadows came in with a 7-4 lead, runners on first and second and two outs in the bottom of the fourth and promptly walked his first batter to load the bases. However, he struck out Brandon Harrison to end the inning, then allowed only a hit batsman and a walk over the final three innings to close out the win.
"Aubrey is our senior leader — and he stepped up and carried us down the stretch," Coach Jeff Burchett of Mooresville said.
Coach John Fowler of Glenn had similar praise for Parrish.
"I thought Kevin came in and pitched well against a very good team," Fowler said.
The Blue Devils got a leadoff walk by Nate Abraham to start the game. He stole second, and after the Bobcats' Harrison struck out Billy Nantz, Jon Crucitti also walked to put runners on first and second. Meadows followed with a first pitch double to the left-center gap for a 2-0 lead.
Glenn responded in the bottom of the inning. Corey Parker drew a leadoff walk and scored when Parks Jordan hit a double to left-center. Jordan was thrown out trying to stretch the hit into a triple. Harrison followed with a triple to right, then scored on Stewart Wright's groundout.
Mooresville reclaimed the lead in the second. Matt Markofski was hit by a pitch, advanced to second on Chris Beaver's single, moved to third on a fielding error, then scored when Abraham hit into a double play to short.
The Blue Devils added to the lead in the third. Crucitti led off with a walk, stole second, and advanced to third on a passed ball. Meadows followed with another walk to force Harrison from the game.
Dylan West greeted reliever Jonathan Shelton with a single to left, then Aaron Meadows followed with another single to left to score West. Beaver worked an eight pitch at-bat to hit another single to left to score Meadows and put Mooresville ahead 6-2.
Mooresville tacked on another run in the fourth as Crucitti singled to center, stole second, then scored on West's single for a 7-2 lead.
Glenn mounted a comeback in the bottom of the fourth. Parrish began the rally with a one-out single and moved to second as Spencer Wilhelm also singled. After a Chris Bonaventure balk advanced the runners to second and third, Lowman flied out to shallow left for the second out. However, Alan Atkinson hit a single to right to score Parrish and Wilhelm, then Parker hit a sharp single to third to force Burchett to turn to Aubrey Meadows.
Burchett felt that the difference in the game was clutch hitting.
"At this level, between two such high level teams, really the difference was that I thought we got the hits in key situations that they didn't get," he said.
Mooresville improves to 21-5 and advances to play the Lake Norman-East Rowan winner. Mooresville is 2-0 this season against Lake Norman and 0-2 against East Rowan, both conference opponents.
Glenn finished the season at 20-6.
"We played hard as a team and surpassed everyone's expectations to win our 13th consecutive conference championship," Fowler said.
Mooresville 213 100 0 — 7 8 2
Glenn 200 200 0 — 4 6 2
Ian Walters, Bonaventure (3), Au. Meadows (4) and Aa. Meadows; Harrison, Shelton (3), Parrish (5) and Atkinson. WP — Walters (6-0). LP — Harrison (5-4). S — Au. Meadows (1). 2B —Au. Meadows (M), Jordan (G). 3B — Harrison (G). Records — Mooresville 21-5, Glenn 20-6.
Leading hitters: M, Crucitti 2-2, 3 runs; Beaver 2-4, RBI; G, Atkinson 1-3, 2 RBIs; Wilhelm 1-2, run
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