By Mike London

mlondon@salisburypost.com

KANNAPOLIS — Carson’s sloppy SPC baseball loss to Hickory Ridge on Monday meant the Cougars were saddled with a 2-4 league record.

But the Cougars  bounced back to beat Cox Mill Wednesday and  they won at Northwest Cabarrus 5-0 on Thursday to get back to .500 in the league.

“We needed to get these last two games just to be relevant in the SPC,”  Carson coach Chris Cauble said. “These last two games were must-wins.”

Carson (6-4, 4-4) didn’t hit many screaming liners. Michael Morrison whacked the ball the hardest. He drilled three liners to right, although two were just noisy outs.

Carson took advantage of walks to score twice in the first, used a double steal  by Heath Mitchem and Owen White to manufacture a run in the fifth, and got two in the seventh on Mitchem’s RBI single and Kris Peacock’s flyball that fell in center field for a run-scoring double.

“We did improve tonight as far as execution on getting our bunts down,” Cauble said. “That’s a positive on offense we can take away from this one.”

Pitching-wise, Carson was fine. Tanner Christy (3-1) rebounded from a 7-1  loss to Concord with six sharp innings.

“He filled up the strike zone and we made the plays behind him,” Cauble said.

Chandler Hubbard hit the ball on the nose for the Trojans (2-7, 1-7 SPC), but mostly Christy was in complete charge.

Northwest Cabarrus had a chance in the fourth with two on and one out, but the Cougars turned a 4-6-3 double play.

“I was just throwing it like I always do and trusting my defense, “ Christy said. “Those two quick runs we got in the first took a lot of the pressure off.”

Caleb Hall and Cameron Prugh got the last three outs for the Cougars.

“We got all 17 guys into the game,” Cauble said. “That’s the first time this year we’ve been able to do that, and that’s another positive.”