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By Brian Pitts
Enterprise Record

A look back at a 2003 American Legion baseball game that featured 54 runs …
On a June night 22 years ago, Mocksville and visiting South Rowan played a slugfest that was literally beyond description.
Mocksville was down 16-8 going into the bottom of the eighth inning. The fans who stuck around saw an unbelievable show. Post 174 staged a comeback for the ages before losing 31-23 in 10 innings.
In that home half of the eighth, Mocksville’s night went from terrible to amazing. One game after pulling out a 14-13, 11-inning win over Mooresville, Mocksville, scored 14 in the eighth to take a 22-16 lead into the ninth.
“You do not see that many runs in slow-pitch softball,” Mocksville coach Mike Lovelace said. “That’s a football score. It was a crazy night.”
Mocksville (8-5) and South (8-3) came in tied with Lexington for first place in the Southern Division. The four-hour, 55-minute circus in a steady mist had a little bit of everything, including two pinch-hit grand slams by South, one grand slam by Mocksville, 12 relief pitchers, 34 walks, 35 hits, the 13th home run at Rich Park in two games and Daniel Hollifield playing four positions in one inning.
“It was amazing,” South coach Allen Wilson said. “That’s baseball. That’s why it’s the greatest game on earth.”
Gabe Beaver hit a grand slam in the fifth for a 12-4 South lead, and it looked like it was over when South carried the 16-8 lead into the bottom of the eighth. With many Mocksville fans having already headed for the exits, the home team sent up 17 batters and scored 14 runs on seven hits and six walks.
“We should have ended it in seven (via the mercy rule), but they just kept coming back,” Wilson said. “It was two first-place teams playing, and it’s a tribute to the guys on both teams.”
Brad Bullard lit the eighth-inning fuse with a single. After Evan Beam and Chad Boone knocked in runs, Wesley Douglas walked with the bases full to set up the biggest hit of the inning, a two-run single by Hollifield, who cut it to 16-14 in his first appearance in seven games.
Bullard singled again to make it 16-15, and four consecutive two-out walks followed, including three bases-loaded free passes to give Mocksville an 18-16 lead. Then you should have seen the look on South’s faces when Boone hit a mammoth grand slam for a 22-16 lead.
“We started making a lot of substitutes to save our legs for (tomorrow), and doggone if the guys we put in don’t battle all the way back,” Lovelace said.
Mocksville was supremely confident of a victory with David Perkins, who had given up one unearned run in 10.2 innings coming into the game, on the mound in the ninth. But in another incredible shift in momentum, South regrouped to score seven runs, tying it on Ryan Wilson’s pinch-hit grand slam to deep center and moving ahead 23-22 on a throwing error.
“I have played and coached in thousands of games, and never have I had emotions go up and down so much in a game,” Wilson said. “You’re so high, you’re so low and you’re high again. You don’t see three grand slams in a year, and we saw three in one game. It was an incredible game.”
The teams were throwing haymaker after haymaker. Not to be outdone, Mocksville tied it at 23-23 after there were two outs and nobody on against Andrew Morgan, who was virtually unhittable while striking out 101 in 72 innings as an all-state pitcher at South Rowan High.
After Morgan overwhelmed the first two batters, Andrew McClannon fought off three full-count pitches before drawing a walk. Morgan proceeded to walk McKenzie Willoughby, Willie Infante and Michael Wernsing to tie the game.
“That’s unheard-of with him,” Wilson said. “Morgan doesn’t walk four in a game usually, but, hey, the (wet) conditions were tough.”
After the four straight walks, Beam came tantalizingly close to winning it. He hit a bullet up the middle, but the second baseman was shaded that way and got the out to force extra innings.
South roughed up Mocksville’s relievers in the 10th, smacking its fourth homer and scoring eight runs on six hits. Hollifield took the mound for the first time in two years. Lovelace went to the mound, scratched his head and motioned for Beam, who politely declined the offer. Wernsing got the call instead and became the sixth Mocksville pitcher to work fewer than two innings.
“I had used up everybody on my bench and I started throwing people that hadn’t seen the mound since Little League or never,” Lovelace said. “We kept digging and plugging away, we made them go to their No. 1 and we scored one off Morgan. So we’ve got some confidence for down the road.”
The loss ended Mocksville’s five-game winning streak, while South won for the eighth time in nine games.
Boone had a monster game, going 4 for 5 with five RBIs and raising his average to a team-best .416. Bullard went 3 for 6. Perkins (.413) stayed hot at 2 for 5.
Infante came off the bench to draw four walks. Wernsing had two bases-loaded walks. Beam took over the RBI lead (14) and slammed his second homer in two games.
Together, there were 15 pitchers. Mocksville allowed 23 base runners on walks/hit by pitches, and South walked or beaned 15.
“I’m so proud of our guys, and I know coach Lovelace is also for not giving up,” Wilson said. “We’d both like to kill our pitching staffs, but fans from both sides will talk about this game for years to come. When you look back at everything and figure out how everything went down, I’ve never been in one like this.”