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South Point lefty Zach Horne struck out 10 while improving to 9-3.
By Benjamin Patton/The Gazette
Kings Mountain's Cody Austin congratulates teammate Rai Robinson after Robinson homered against South Point.
By Benjamin Patton/The Gazette
Lane's homer lifts Red Raiders to Western semifinals
BELMONT - South Point senior Chris Lane admitted afterward that Friday's blustery wind may have helped his game-winning home run get out of Raider Field.
Not that Lane was apologizing for the dramatic hit that lifted the Red Raiders to a 3-2 victory over Kings Mountain and advances them into next week's Western N.C. Class 3A semifinals.
"He threw it down the center of the plate," Lane said of the first pitch he saw from hard-luck loser Luke Proctor. "I think the wind carried it. It was awfully high in the air. But I'll take it. Most definitely."
South Point (18-8) plays again on Tuesday at R-S Central (24-3), which beat Olympic 4-1 Friday night in its third-round playoff game.
Lane's eighth homer of the year ended a night in which three home runs were hit and the Red Raiders (18-8) ended Kings Mountain's season with their second close win over the Mountaineers this season.
"It was a 3-1 game the first time we played them, so this is two straight tight games," Kings Mountain coach Eric King said of a 3-1 South Point win in a Feb. 29 regular-season game in Belmont. "I told the kids that, ‘You live by the wind and you die by the wind.'"
On Friday, King's team stroked two homers - by Rai Robinson and Chris Allen - before losing on South Point's home run by Lane with none out in the bottom of the seventh.
"The wind was a factor tonight," said winning pitcher Zach Horne, who improved to 9-3 on the season. "The first home run (by Robinson) I thought had a chance to go out when he first hit it. But the second home run (by Allen) I thought was a routine pop-up. But he hit it high in the air and it just kept carrying and carrying."
In between Kings Mountain's home runs in the second and fifth innings, South Point pushed two runs across in more conventional fashion in the third.
Matt Darnell opened the inning with a single to right. After Nick Demarsico moved him to second with a sacrifice bunt, Chris Harkey singled to center to move Darnell to third. After a wild pitch scored Darnell, Jordan Edgerton doubled to center to score Harkey and put South Point ahead 2-1.
The rest of the night was up to the pitchers and defenders.
For South Point, Horne struck out 10 and wriggled out of jams in the sixth and seventh innings.
For Kings Mountain (14-11), Proctor struck out one, walked none and benefitted from two double plays and defensive gems by rightfielder Tyler Ross, shortstop Cody Austin and first baseman Robinson.
"I thought it was just a well-played game," said South Point coach Jason Lineberger, who has guided the Red Raiders to a fourth state playoff game in a season for the first time since South Point was 1994 N.C. 3A runnerup - or when Lineberger was a sophomore first baseman. "They had two great double plays and we hit a lot of balls right at them. But give my guys credit: We just found a way to win."
Kings Mountain's offense was led by the homers of Robinson and Allen and Austin's double. For South Point, Darnell had a game-high two hits.
KM 010 010 0 - 2 5 0
SP 002 000 1 - 3 6 1
W - Zach Horne (9-3). L - Luke Proctor (5-3). HRs - KM, Rai Robinson, Chris Allen; SP, Chris Lane (8).
