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The walks piled up, the errors accumulated and Rowan County took advantage of a sea of free base runners to swamp Stanly County 16-5 in NC3 baseball Sunday.

After a marathon, nine-run bottom of the fifth at Newman Park, Rowan led 16-1.
Stanly’s four-run sixth made the scoreboard more respectable, but the game still ended via the 10-run-rule after Stanly was retired in the top of the seventh.

Once again, only 25 fans were allowed inside the park. More watched from outside the right-field wall or from lofty vantage points at Shuford Stadium, where the new turf field sits in hopeful anticipation of a football season.

Rowan (11-1, 2-1) took a 1-0 lead in the first against Stanly starter Sawyer Smith on a dropped flyball and a double by Cole Hales.

Hales’ double would be the only extra-base hit of a strange game. It was one base at a time for a Rowan offense fueled by a dozen walks, nine singles, six stolen bases, four wild pitches, three errors, a hit batsman and a balk.

Jordan Goodine had three hits and three steals. Hales had a run-scoring single and a bases-loaded walk, in addition to his early double. Jakes Harris accepted three walks.

Rowan provided young West Rowan lefty Casey Gouge with a 5-0 cushion with a four-run second inning. Lead-off man Charlie Klingler’s two-run single was the key blow. Hales singled in a run before Wayne Mize lifted a sacrifice fly.

Rowan made it 7-0 in the third, with one run scoring on a wild pitch. CP Pyle’s sac fly plated the other.

Gouge sailed along, allowing one hit in each of his four innings of work.

Stanly scored in the fourth, on an error, a walk and the RBI single that lefty hitter Brady Parker, who is on the team at Pfeiffer, sliced gently into left field.

Scout Nichols pitched the fifth for Rowan. There was a walk and a balk, but Stanly couldn’t score.

Then Rowan racked up a fruitful bottom half of the inning. Klingler grounded into a forceout at the plate for the first out and his groundball was the third out, but a parade of Rowan runners crossed the plate between those events. In all, 13 Rowan batters marched to the plate.

Rowan reliever Bryson Wagner was greeted with two hits and two walks in the Stanly sixth. All four runners came around to score, but Chase Shoaf finally got Stanly out and he was able to duplicate that feat in the seventh.

Parker had two hits for Stanly (1-3, 1-2).

Contact Mike London at mike.london@salisburypost.com.