Two area teams to start regional finals tonight

South Stokes and Ledford will start play tonight in best-of-three Western Regional series of the NCHSAA baseball playoffs.

South Stokes (22-5) will open at Cherryville (20-7) in Class 1-A, and Ledford (24-6) will be at home against East Rutherford (20-8) in Class 2-A.

South Stokes is in the semifinals for the first time since 2004, the year it won the third of three straight state titles. It will face a Cherryville program with a rich tradition and six state championships since 1980, with the last in 2001.

Jason Brown and Tyler Kloc are the only pitchers Coach Gary Nail of South has used during four playoff wins, with the exception of the one inning Hunter Ford pitched in relief Tuesday in an 8-3 win over Bishop McGuinness.

Brown (11-2) pitched two innings in relief of Kloc on Tuesday and threw 29 pitches, and Nail said that Brown would start Game 1 tonight.

"He will start, and Tyler was going to get a lot of running in (yesterday), and hopefully he will be ready to go on Friday," Nail said. "(Kloc) only threw 61 pitches (Tuesday), and I know its two-days' rest, but he ought to be able to come back from that.

"So we will go with Jason and Tyler and go with some of our other guys, like Hunter Ford, Ryan Gore, and Ethan Rice if we need relief."

In addition to being South's top pitchers, Kloc and Brown are also the top hitters. Kloc, a junior, has a .560 average, 11 home runs and 41 RBIs, and Nail said that Kloc compares favorably to Dustin Ackley, a former South star who now plays at North Carolina. Brown, a senior who has signed with Pfeiffer, has a .424 average, four home runs and 28 RBIs.

Leadoff hitter Gore, who hit for the cycle last week in a 19-1 pounding of the N.C. School of Science and Math, has set the table for the Sauras by batting .441 and scoring 39 runs. Rice, a sophomore who has played 11 varsity games since being promoted from the junior varsity, has five home runs.

"I like the way we have been throwing the ball," Nail said. "We haven't been as sharp in the playoffs as I would like, but we are getting outs when we need them and, knock on wood, I like the way we are swinging the bat right now. We are swinging it the best we have all year. We are getting production out of our 7, 8 and 9 batters, where at beginning of year we weren't getting that."

Nail watched East Surry eliminate Cherryville in the 2007 regional and said that most of the team is back.

"I think they lost one player from last year's team, so they basically have the same team back," Nail said. "Very well coached, fundamentally sound, and they have good pitching. I have heard a lot about their top two pitchers, Seth Freeman (7-2) and Cory Parks. I have heard that they will throw Freeman (tonight), and I don't if that's true or not, but it's what I have heard."

Coach Chris Adams of Ledford didn't see his team pound Starmount 11-0 in Tuesday's quarterfinals because he was serving the first of a two-game suspension after being ejected during last week's win over West Lincoln.

Adams also won't be at Game 1 tonight when Ledford plays East Rutherford. Although he is allowed to be at the park, he has chosen to stay home and receive updates from those at the game.

"I have confidence in our kids," Adams said. "I had made the comment, someone else had asked me, and I felt like if none of our coaches could be there and they would be fine. We have a great group of seniors, and they have a ton of experience, a ton of playoff experience, and I just believe in them."

East Rutherford, a team strong enough to beat North Davidson earlier this season, has won four Class 2-A state titles in the last six years and is the defending state champion.

Justin Livengood (8-0, 1.01 era) and Ricky Vaughn (6-3, 3.91) have carried Ledford's pitching staff this season, and Vaughn is up in the rotation after Livengood shut down Starmount in five innings Tuesday.

Patrick Koontz, a left-hander and Ledford's No. 3 hitter, is batting .494 with nine home runs, 38 RBIs and 40 runs scored. Livengood, the cleanup hitter, has a .424 average, four home runs and 28 RBIs.

Cullen Park (11-3) pitched all seven innings for East Rutherford in Tuesday's 9-4 win over Lenoir Hibriten, and Adams said he knows that Park and Seth Baldwin, a left-handed hitter who has committed to UNC, are the top players on the team.

"I know they are very good, and they beat North Davidson, and North beat us, but I can't imagine they would show us anything we haven't seen in our 30 games," Adams said. "I think our conference (Central Carolina 2-A) is really good, and we have been tested really good. I have tried to set our nonconference schedule to get us ready for this stage of the season. Hopefully it has our kids prepared."

■ Mason Linker can be reached at 727-7324 or at mlinker@wsjournal.com.