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| Chris Kinard leaps on what was going to be a close play at the plate before the ball got away. - Photo by James Barringer |
Lovelace’s worries, however, have been erased. Mocksville beat visiting High Point 9-4 in a non-division game on June 20, giving it seven wins in nine games. Substantial improvement on the mound has coincided with the 7-2 run. Since the Kernersville game, Mocksville has allowed 30 earned runs in 81 2/3 innings for a startling 3.31 ERA.
One night after shutting down Concord 4-2, the pitching momentum carried over as Ryan Carter, Zach Russell-Myers and Justin Moody held High Point to seven hits and three earned runs.
“I talked to the pitchers after (a 17-5 loss at Lexington),” Lovelace said. “I told them they have to take some pride in being able to eat up some innings, and since then they have.”
Mocksville (13-8 overall) thoroughly outplayed High Point nearly a week after losing 5-2 to the same team. Carter (2-2, 3.46) was sharp for six innings, leaving with a four-hitter and a 6-1 lead. He faced either three or four batters in five of six frames.
“Carter was real good, and we pulled him just because he’d thrown 80 pitches and we’ve got to start him this weekend,” Lovelace said. “We needed to get him back out there after that Rowan game (when a ninth-inning grand slam gave Rowan a 10-5 win).”
Then came three seventh-inning strikeouts by Russell-Myers. One of the strikeout victims swung through a knuckleball but reached when the ball got by catcher Chris Kinard.
“He had an opportunity to get four strikeouts in one inning,” he said. “But Kinard threw a guy out at third.”
High Point scored one in the top of the second, but Mocksville immediately responded. Zach Howard singled and Justin Kidd followed with a two-out RBI double. Mocksville roared to a 4-1 lead in the fifth thanks to hits by Zach Vogler, Brent Beam and Seth Miller. Getting hits from Vogler and Beam, Mocksville tacked on two in the sixth.
The lead was 7-1 before High Point’s cleanup man closed the gap with a three-run homer. But Moody could have been out of the inning before that.
“We missed a double-play ball that was routine,” Lovelace said.
The key offensive components were Vogler (2 for 4, double, walk), Boyd (single, two walks), Beam (2 for 3), Howard (2 for 5, two steals), Miller (2 for 5, steal) and Kidd (double, walk).
Boyd extended his hitting streak to seven, while Beam picked up the 11th multi-hit game of his monster season.
“We kept it rolling in the right ... subscribe to the Davie County Enterprise Record, P.O. Box 99, Mocksville, N.C. 27028.