Prep Baseball: Carson 4, South Rowan 3

Published 12:00 am Friday, April 3, 2009

By David Shaw
dshaw@salisburypost.com
CHINA GROVE ó Carson’s baseball team continued its northward march Friday night ó even if its defense was stopped at the border.
Despite committing five errors, the Cougars won for the eighth time in nine games, rallying for a pair of sixth-inning runs and a 4-3 victory over visiting South Rowan.
“We’ve always got to make it interesting,” winning pitcher Will Misenheimer said after Carson won its fourth straight and improved to 5-1 in NPC play. “This team is just so good at finding ways to win.”
Carson tied the score when Tyler Freeze scored on a throwing error in the last of the sixth inning and plated the game-winner on Kenny Karriker’s hit-and-run single to left field with one out.
“It’s a game of execution,” said Carson coach Chris Cauble. “We executed that inning and wound up on the winning side.”
The loss dropped South (4-6, 1-6) deeper into the pool. The Raiders had baserunners galore, but stranded 10 ó including three in the top of the sixth and two in the seventh.
“We’re this close,” coach Thad Crissmon said, positioning his thumb and index finger an inch apart. “We’re playing it the right way. We’re getting after it. We’re getting better every game.”
Yet they lost for the fourth time in their last five games, squandering a worthy start by junior lefty Dylan Walker. He was hit hard by the Cougars ó seven hits allowed in 41/3 innings ó but steered clear of serious trouble and left with a 3-2 lead.
“I felt pretty good,” Walker said after his no-decision. “My curveball was working, my changeup wasn’t. And I had a few 0-2 counts where I missed my spots and gave up base hits. I’m working on it. We all are.”
Misenheimer, the lanky senior with the submarine-style delivery, pitched a complete game and improved to 2-0. He was erratically effective, yielding seven hits, hitting three batters and committing a pair of throwing errors. But his location was superb ó consistently below the knees ó and he induced 13 groundouts.
“He had a lot of movement on the ball,” said Freeze, Carson’s junior catcher. “He kept it low ó and coming from down there, he got ’em.”
Trailing 3-2, Misenheimer pitched himself into a jam in the sixth when South loaded the bases with one away. He escaped through a trap door by getting leadoff batter Blake Houston on a bouncer back to the mound and Jacob Dietz on a grounder that first-baseman Kyle Bridges handled flawlessly.
In the seventh, SR put runners on first and second with one out. This time Misenheimer seemingly walked through a minefield by fanning Preston Penninger on a 1-2 slider and retiring Steve Erwin on a game-ending lineout to shortstop Gunnar Hogan.
“Thank God I have this infield,” Misenheimer said afterward. “It’s one of the best in the county. Thank God that last ball was right to Gunnar. If it went anywhere else I’d probably be crying.”
Instead, the Cougars were joyfully dancing in front of their dugout as an overflow crowd filed out.
“That’s just the attitude of this team,” Karriker said after producing a pair of singles. “Everybody likes each other. Everybody pulls for each other all the time. No matter what happens, we always keep our heads on straight.”

NOTES: Carson’s Zack Grkman had a first-inning double and scored the game’s first run when he stole home. The Cougars went up 2-0 in the second on Patrick Bearden’s sacrifice fly. … Walker went 2-for-3 with an RBI double in South’s three-run third inning. Teammate Maverick Miles, the county’s leading hitter, went 1-for-4 with an infield hit and three groundouts. … Carson hosts West Iredell and the Raiders entertain North Iredell on Tuesday.