By Brian Pitts
Davie Enterprise Record
Michael Ball, a sophomore from West Rowan, accounted for seven of West’s 11 wins during the high-school season, he limited powerful Caldwell County to one unearned run in a four-inning stint, and he enhanced his status in the rotation with another solid outing against visiting Concord on June 2.
When Ball wasn’t facing the vaunted Brandon Porter, he made it look easy. Porter, Concord’s cleanup man, slammed a two-run homer in the first inning and a solo shot in the third to account for all of Concord’s offense in an 11-3 Mocksville Legion romp.
Ball only gave up two other hits in eight innings, blanked Concord from the fourth through the eighth and moved to 2-0 to match Ryan Foster’s record.
“Ball had an outstanding performance,” coach Charles Kurfees said.
“He threw well,” pitching coach Todd Bumgarner said. “He’s been throwing well every time we’ve run him out there. He threw good against Caldwell County.”
Ball has only allowed 11 hits in 16 innings, translating into a 2.25 ERA. Corey Randall closed with a hitless ninth as reeling Concord fell to 1-8 overall and 1-4 in the Southern Division.
“Ball just threw that fastball in and out,” Bumgarner said. “We got the lead and just pounded the strike zone. Ball made All-Rowan County. We knew what we had there.”
Mocksville improved to 6-3 and 3-1 in the division. It was its second straight win and the fourth win in five games. Mocksville remained in a four-way tie for first in the loss column, with Rowan County at 5-1, Kannapolis at 4-1 and Mooresville Post 66 tied with Mocksville at 3-1.
Mocksville put up its highest run total in four games despite only having seven hits. The hits were plenty enough because four of them were doubles and Concord helped Mocksville’s cause with 12 walks.
Corey Randall (2-5, two RBI, double), Jacob Walker (1-2, two RBI, double, three walks), Ben Temple (1-3, hit by pitch, walk), Brice Merritt (1-2, two RBI, double, three walks), Karch Arey (1-5, two RBI, double, walk) and Matt Miller (two walks) all reached multiple times.
“We took pitches and got a lot of walks,” Kurfees said. “We hit the ball when we needed to. We’re getting more disciplined at the plate. We’re learning how to work the pitchers to get in hitter’s counts. Of course, they helped us out, too, with the errors and walks.”
Mocksville flipped a 2-0 deficit to a 4-2 lead in the bottom of the first. Randall laced a two-out, RBI double ...