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Corey Seager's 2-run single in 7th lifts Trojans

Photo by James Nix

Northwest Cabarrus' Taylor West pitches against Concord Tuesday afternoon.

By Steve Winzenread | Independent Tribune

Published: March 10, 2010

KANNAPOLIS - In the fourth inning, Concord had the luxury of intentionally walking Corey Seager.

But in the bottom of the seventh, with the bases loaded, there was nowhere to put him.

The result: A nine-pitch at-bat, and a one-out, two-run single that lifted Northwest Cabarrus to an 8-7 win over the Spiders in their South Piedmont 3A opener.

Batting left-handed, Seager ripped the 2-2 pitch into rightfield, scoring Weston Smith and Tanner Bigham.

"We got it back to the top of the lineup and he comes through with the big hit," said Northwest head coach Joe Hubbard. "It was just great."

Smith reached on a one-out infield single and Bigham walked. When leadoff hitter William Miller was hit by a pitch, the stage was set for Seager.

After falling behind 3-0 in the top of the first inning, Northwest came back to lead with a three-run fourth.

Following the intentional walk to Seager, which put runners at first and second, Justin Seager hit an RBI single that tied the game 4-4. A two-out, two-run double by Jon Wallace put Northwest ahead 6-4.

But Concord rallied for three runs in the sixth to regain the lead 7-6 on back-to-back, run-scoring RBI doubles by James Benjamin and Dylan Pack, and a sacrifice fly by Corey Smith.

Kevin Hamilton, who pitched out of a jam in the top of the seventh, was the winning pitcher.

An error, walk and Benjamin's single loaded the bases for Concord with one out, but Hamilton got a strikeout and comebacker to end the threat.

"That was Kevin Hamilton's first outing," Hubbard said. "So I was proud of him to go out there and battle the way he did."

Corey Seager had three hits, Wallace hit an RBI single to go with his two-run double and Michael
Mariano had two hits.

"It's a win," Hubbard said. "I don't think we played particularly well through the middle innings."

For Concord, Ryan Burris hit a two-run single, Ryan Goodman had an RBI single and Benjamin knocked three hits.

"Our expectations are high with this group," said Concord head coach Derek Shoe. "We return seven of our nine starters. These guys have a little bit of experience. It's their second year with me so they kind of know what to expect. We expect a lot of good things this year."

As for Northwest, Hubbard said: "We're a mixture. We've got a lot of young kids, but we've also got a couple of seniors who are real good leaders. I think we're going to win and lose games on the mound. We're going to have to pitch it effectively in this league to win ballgames. But I think we've got a really deep staff and we can do that.

"Just like everybody else, we haven't had time on the field (because of weather), so we're making mistakes that normally you don't make this time of year. Hopefully we're going to get there."

The two teams are scheduled to meet at Concord on Friday in the SPC's format of playing the same team twice a week.

"I love it," Shoe said. "We're going to find out who the true conference champion is this way. Nobody can line up their number ones (best starting pitcher) against you. Especially in this new conference with everybody being ten minutes down the road, it should be a lot of fun."