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Prep Roundup
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• Public Schools • South Iredell High School • top story
2008 Apr-14
First time the charm for South’s DulaBy Brad Norman A pair of firsts gave South Iredell’s baseball team a memorable win Friday. With senior Rowdy Harris playing catcher for the first time in his baseball career, sophomore Chris Dula hurled an abbreviated no-hitter in his first start on the varsity team. Dula, who also plays shortstop and center field, allowed just one walk in the Vikings’ 10-0, five-inning win over Highland Tech. “I was upset when he walked a guy in the second inning because I knew he had a good chance of a perfect game,” Vikings coach Trey Ramsey said. “I knew he was going to have good stuff, and they were going to have trouble hitting.” Dula struck out eight in the contest, using a commanding fastball and sweeping curve. Ramsey has said Dula has the strongest arm on the team. His control is obviously pretty good as well. “I just kind of focused more before this game and just prepared more mentally,” Dula said. “I was feeling pretty good that day.” Being more mentally focused may have been the key component. Dula concentrated on location more than topping out his velocity. “His control was much better,” Ramsey said. “Being young, he gets real excited and he just wants to throw it as hard as he can, and he starts to elevate his fastball. He stayed pretty calm, stayed in rhythm, and kept the ball down, and that was a major difference.” Ramsey called the pitches from the dugout, taking advantage of Dula’s heat, which has been clocked in the mid-80s. “For the most part, his fastball had good life,” Ramsey said. “He used a breaking ball when he needed to, but he located his fastball and that was the biggest thing.” Harris, a utility player who also pitches some, enjoyed the view from behind the plate. He also was able to focus solely on catching Dula’s pitches and ignore the intricacies of holding and throwing out baserunners since Highland Tech only got on base once. “He was hitting his spots from the get-go,” Harris said. “Then later on in the game, his curveball started working real nice. Coach Ramsey did a good job of calling the pitches.” Dula — who Harris said is quiet anyway — didn’t chatter much in the dugout between innings. But when the no-hitter was complete, most of the team didn’t realize it. “None of us knew it until we got out to the outfield and the coaches told us,” Harris said. “We weren’t really following it. I didn’t notice nobody got a hit on him. It was only in the fifth inning, and we still thought we were playing two more innings.” It was an important win for the Vikings, who at 2-4 in Southern Piedmont 1A-2A play remain two games behind Lincolnton and Bessemer City for the conference’s fourth and final 2A playoff berth. “The second part of the season should be interesting,” Harris said. Bookmarkz |
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