Devil of a season

Aubrey Meadows' eighth strikeout ended last Friday's baseball game against North Iredell, sealing an 8-3 North Piedmont 3A victory for the Blue Devils.

Oh, but it did so much more than produce Mooresville's 13th win.

"It's been a long time," coach Jeff Burchett said.

Burchett's team clinched no worse than a share of the NPC title -- their first conference championship in many moons. How long exactly?

Try 1985.

Timely hitting and a Meadows gem (he allowed three hits in a complete-game performance) ended the drought. That, and strategy at a critical point in the game.

North Iredell was about to get out of a huge jam in the bottom of the fourth inning. Relief pitcher Aaron Johnson struck out a pair with the bases loaded and the game knotted at 3-all.

Johnson came within a strike of a third consecutive K, but a parade of time calls while Aaron Meadows was at the plate altered the pace.

"The umpire should have figured it out. Three consecutive time calls. You've got to figure that out and just ignore it. He's in control," North Iredell coach Matthew Poole said. "It's breaking the pitcher's rhythm. That's how you teach and preach: 'work fast; get in a rhythm.' They were breaking it."

It worked like a charm, too.

Aaron Meadows ran the count full before drawing a walk to score the go-ahead run. The Blue Devils never looked back.

Now they'll look back at this season and remember how it felt to end 22 years of frustration. The memory could be even better.

Mooresville needs one win or a West Rowan loss in the final two games to lock up the NPC championship outright. The Blue Devils get their first crack at that Tuesday night against rival Lake Norman.