By Tom Ham
Wilson Daily Times
ROCKY MOUNT - Conference co-champions they were before Friday night's showdown. An conference co-champions they remain.
But Fike will be the 3-A NEW 6 Conference's top representative in the N.C. High School Athletic Association baseball playoffs after a pulsating 1-0 conquest of Rocky Mount on the Gryphon Stadium diamond Friday evening.
Behind games of their lives from sophomore second baseman Michael McLawhorn and senior right-handed pitcher Bentley Massey, the Golden Demons claimed their second one-run victory against Rocky Mount this week.
Tuesday night's 9-8 11-innings triumph by Fike left the long-time rivals deadlocked for the conference lead. The playoff game to determine the league's top seed in the playoffs became necessary when both teams prevailed in their regular-season finale Thursday night.
McLawhorn, the game's second hitter, accounted for the only run with a blast over the left-field fence in the top of the first inning.
He wound up with a 3 for 3 performance and a stolen base. Defensively, his leaping stab of a line drive off the bat of Gryphons' junior shortstop Dillion Cockrell started a double play in the fifth inning.
Massey, who lasted less than four innings as Fike's mound starter against the Gryphons on Tuesday night, was masterful in outdueling Gryphons' senior right-hander Jim Leggett.
Able to throw his curve, slider, change-up and fastball for strikes, Massey silenced Rocky Mount on four hits, issued one walk and struck out seven.
Leggett, battling an injury to his pitching arm, yielded just seven hits and no walks, while striking out five.
Neither team committed an error and the only walk was intentional. The contest was played in a scant 93 minutes. It had to be a big game -- six umpires worked it.
"This group never ceases to amaze me," said elated Fike head coach Will Flowers. "We had some athletes that did some great things for us last year, and it has carried over to this season. As a group, we're very good."
Fike, 9-1 in the conference, climbed to 18-4. Rocky Mount, also 9-1 in the league, dipped to 19-5.
"It was a well-played game -- about as good as you would want to see," commented Rocky Mount head coach Pat Smith. "It was what you would expect with two good teams.
"Their guy hit one out in the first inning -- what can you say? We hit two pretty good ones that were about a foot or two from going out. I'm not disappointed -- theirs went out and ours didn't."
McLawhorn hammered a change-up, the first pitch he saw from Leggett.
"I waited on it as long as I could; then, I hit it hard," McLawhorn reviewed. "You come into a game like this and just hope for the best. It feels pretty good to come out on top and it feels good to beat a team like that."
However, McLawhorn admitted he thought the Demons would need more than one run.
"Rocky Mount is a good hitting team and I figured (the homer) wouldn't be enough," Fike's second baseman continued. "Bentley did a really good job, and our confidence was really high after (wins) Tuesday and Thursday."
Junior Rocky Mount center fielder Brian Goodwin slammed a double in the third inning, but Massey's biggest test came in the sixth.
Senior left fielder William Barringer, with one out, doubled on a shot that needed to be only two feet higher to clear the fence. Then, Massey was aided by a diving catch by junior left fielder Michael Brown.
Barringer took third on a wild pitch. Senior right fielder Chris Berry rapped a grounder to Fike shortstop William Prince. Prince hesitated, then briskly tossed to the ever-present McLawhorn for the inning-ending force out.
"We try to get the easiest out," McLawhorn reasoned, "and if (Prince) wanted to throw it to me, I was going to be there for him."
Massey explained the biggest difference from Tuesday night's performance was his ability to mix his pitches.
"The weather was a lot better tonight," Fike's mound ace added. "Tuesday night, I gave out; my arm angle was low; and my breaking ball was not breaking.
"Tonight, it seemed like the curve was working best; it had downward tilt. And I had to work in the change-up a lot more. But the main thing that was different tonight was that I could throw all four pitches."
Massey, however, did not consider the performance his career best.
"I had some lucky breaks -- they hit two off the fence," he noted. "I just felt I needed to redeem myself; I owed it to my team. I just think everybody played an unbelievable game -- especially Michael."
Flowers noted his team was disappointed about not having the opportunity to play the game at home, but understood the situation (Fike lost the flip of the coin).
"But no matter where we played," he added, "this game was very important to our future."
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