Staff report

CHERRYVILLE — Led by TJ Harris, Nick Ayash and Nolan Tavornik, Carson slugged its way to a 9-7 victory over Roanoke on Saturday, the opening day of the Junior American Legion state tournament.

All three hitters were infielders for Carson’s 15-7-1 jayvee baseball team.

Will Bradshaw was the winning pitcher for Carson. Corbin Hales, who got some innings for the Rowan County American Legion team this summer, earned the save.

Bradshaw was a dependable hitter for Carson’s varsity in the spring and batted .286. Hales was the closer for the 13-12 varsity team.

Rob Hales, coaches the Carson Junior Legion squad.

Roanoke, from Bertie County, was an area champion. Carson was the runner-up to Davidson County in Area III.

It’s normally an eight-team field for the double-elimination state tournament, with two teams from each of the four areas, but Calabash forfeited prior to the tournament to make it a seven-team event.

In other Saturday results, South Caldwell romped 9-1 against Beaufort and Davidson County smashed Wilmington 12-2, so it looks like the western teams are the stronger entries.

Carson will play host Cherryville on Sunday afternoon in a game moved up to 3 p.m. because of the forfeit situation.

Roanoke will get a forfeit over Calabash today.

Beaufort and Wilmington will meet in a 10 a.m. elimination game.

South Caldwell and Davidson County will square off in a winner’s bracket matchup at 12:30 p.m.