Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

By Brian Pitts
Enterprise Record

Concord demolished Mocksville’s Senior Legion baseball team 12-2 on May 18. Mocksville returned the favor at home on June 4, winning 15-5.
Who woulda thunk it?
“I don’t know how we did it,” coach Mike Lovelace said after Mocksville (3-6 overall) exploded for 33 runs in back-to-back wins.
James Spencer owned the day. After only lasting 1.2 innings in his first start, he was brilliant in four innings. He held Concord to five hits, gave up one earned run, walked none and struck out six.
“The story was James Spencer,” Lovelace said after he threw 51 of 81 pitches for strikes. “He only threw two innings in high school. He’s going to Guilford Tech Community College to pitch. He’s from Southwest Guilford, but they were loaded with arms. He’s going to end up being in a starting role. I’ve just got to build him up. I mean, he had not thrown over 25 pitches in a bullpen all spring. He was in the zone. He was good.”
Spencer has racked up nine Ks in 5.2 innings, including the first three Concord batters he saw, and what makes his 2.47 ERA all the more impressive is the staff’s ERA is an unsightly 9.17.
“The only earned run they had, they stole home,” Lovelace said. “He walked three on Saturday in 1 2/3. So that’s how much he improved from Saturday to today.”
Mocksville wasted no time putting Concord behind the eight-ball. Noah Owens opened the bottom half of the first with a single before all the damage was done with two outs. Nik Nelson singled, Joseph Johnson laced a two-run double, Ryan Robinson reached via catcher’s interference and Johnson scored on a double steal to give his team a 4-0 lead.
Mocksville absorbed Concord’s three-run third without flinching. After its lead was chopped to 5-4, it poured across six in the bottom of the third. Brayden Carter, Ryan Williams and Jonus Johnson sandwiched singles around two walks. Owens supplied the third straight hit. Williams scored on a wild pitch. Manny Morales provided the fifth hit of the inning as Mocksville sped toward the eventual mercy rule, which came to fruition in the fifth.
Owens had a monster night, gong 4 for 4 with four runs, two RBIs and a double and raising his average from .150 to .291. Morales and Jonus Johnson both went 2-3. David Thiel (1-4), Carter (1-4), Nelson (1-3), Joseph Johnson (1-1, three RBIs, two walks) and Williams (1-2) had one hit apiece.
Robinson was the only Mocksville batter who did not enjoy a hit, but “he hit the ball on the button,” Lovelace said.
On the defensive side, left fielder Robinson turned in a phenomenal play.
“One of the top five catches I’ve seen of all time was made tonight,” gushed Lovelace. “It was unbelievable. I didn’t even know he was going to get to it. It was hit on a line in the left-center gap and he laid out above his head full tilt right before the warning track, caught it and rolled. I don’t know how he got to it. I mean, I am still picturing it. It was SportsCenter. He’s left-handed, so his right hand was out. It kind of knocked the wind out of him.”
Notes: In the fifth, Tucker Hobbs punctuated the sparkling all-around game by retiring the side in order in 10 pitches. … After starting 5-0, Concord slipped to 5-3. It was outscored 29-8 in two nights, including a 14-3 loss to Davidson County before traveling to Rich Park. … Lovelace is hoping for a miracle in regard to Hunter Daywalt, who was beaned in the face two days before the Concord game. “Daywalt is probably out for the summer,” he said. “It’s two weeks and then he’s going to get it checked again – but it’s fractured.”
Rowan 11, Mocksville 1
Unfortunately, Mocksville came back to Earth at Rowan County. Rowan punished the local nine 14-2 on June 1, and it did the same thing on June 6.
It was a good game for three and a half innings as Mocksville cut the deficit to 2-1 in the top of the fourth. But Rowan hit its stride in its half of the fourth and won going away.
Williams (2-2) had two of Mocksville’s five hits. Thiel, Spencer and Jonus Johnson all went 1-2. All three Mocksville pitchers struggled, combining for nine hits allowed and seven walks.
Notes: While Rowan improved to 3-1, Mocksville slipped to 3-7. … Lovelace is quite concerned about his pitching depth. “I’ll find a way to piece it; I’ve got until June 20 (when rosters must be finalized),” he said. “But I don’t know what I’m going to do. I mean, I may have to pitch one game.”