By: Evan Rogers

HOLLY SPRINGS, N.C. — There’s no place like home.

The sense of comfort, sentiment and ease that comes with playing on your home diamond is unmatched.

In need of a win to snap its three-game losing skid, the Holly Springs Salamanders topped the South Wake Shakes, 14-2, in front of a lively Ting Park.

Despite the contest counting as an exhibition match, the victory, though not present on the Salamanders’ record, couldn’t have come at a more opportune time. Being in the midst of an extended losing streak, Holly Springs knew its struggles could be turned around quickly.

“We had an opportunity to win every game,” assistant coach Mike Valder said. “We just had to push through the adversity.”

And this message of resilience was visible from the first pitch.

After numerous errors resulted in a South Wake run in the top of the first, the Salamanders came up to bat looking to rewrite a pattern seen in their previous contests. In past games, Holly Springs had a tendency to pile up errors and surrender deficits early on.

But not tonight.

With one swing, catcher Will Stewart cranked a two-run homer in the first inning to put the Salamanders up 4-1. One inning later, Stewart again called his number to the same part of the field, and drove in the same number of runs with his second two-run blast of the night.

The latter of his two home runs marked the junior of North Carolina’s third shot in the past two games, a stat Stewart credits to a subtle change made to his swing last week.

“I was feeling a little slow, and had my hands higher,” he said. “I dropped them down, and it feels quicker now and that made the difference.”

As Stewart was rejuvenating this powerful swing, his teammates aided the scoring burst.

In the second inning, Davis Meche’s skying triple scored two runs for Holly Springs and a balk allowed him to waltz home for a third point. Coupled with Stewart’s homer in the same frame, and the Salamanders plated six runs in the inning to take a resounding 10-1 lead.

Yet, the early success at the plate was met by a pitcher’s duel between the two squads that held both teams scoreless for three innings.

After multiple attempts at breaking the gridlock failed for Holly Springs, center fielder Brett Callahan took matters into his own bat.

With one swing, the Holly Springs faithful gasped, roared and rose to an ovation as they watched Callahan’s ball bounce off the outer gate of Ting Park — which saved his ball from trickling onto Main Street.

“That was probably the hardest ball I’ve ever hit in my life,” Callahan said.

The home run gave Holly Springs its first double-digit lead of season, en route to its dominant win over South Wake.

And for Callahan, his sixth-inning moonshot made his first night in front of ‘Mander nation even more memorable, a feeling he described with a simple — yet encompassing — phrase.

“It was awesome,” he said.