Not surprising, though, was the way North’s ace recovered when trouble loomed. He pitched out of two early jams and helped the Cavaliers to a 12-2 six-inning win over their 2A Central Carolina Conference rival.

The win put North in sole possession of first place in the league at 9-3 overall and a perfect 6-0 one time through the conference. Salisbury fell to 6-3 overall, 4-1 in the CCC.

Hornet Daniel Wallace opened the game by smoking a single to left field. Then Cole Grams followed with a walk, and it became clear that Moore wasn’t quite himself. The 6-foot-5 lefty was still recovering from a bout of strep throat suffered last week.

“I was a little weak early, but I got some Gatorade and I felt OK,”Moore said.“I never could get a good rhythm out there. I was all over the place early and late in the game it seemed like Iwas just barely missing my spots.”

Tommy Ludwig’s RBI single to end the first was Salisbury’s second hit of the inning, the same number Moore generally yields per game. The Hornets ended up with four, and while Moore struck out seven, the four walks he allowed were the most since the season opener.

Moore wasn’t the only one uncomfortable on the mound. Salisbury starter Michael Blount ran into trouble in the first inning after back-to-back two-out walks. Aaron Rimer’s sacrifice fly had tied the game at 1-all before Moore and Eric Mowery walked with two outs. Cass Jarrett followed with a ground-rule double over the left-field fence, and Tad Ogg drilled a single to right field to bring home two runs for a 4-1 lead.

Moore walked Grams to force in a run in the top of the second, but he bounced back to end the threat with a strikeout and tapper back to the mound.

The Hornets only trailed 4-2, but knew their chances were slipping away.

“We started out the game putting the bat on the ball, but we left too many on,”Salisbury head coach Tom Sexton said. “If we had had one more positive at-bat in the early innings we could have made a game of it.”

Instead, North began to pull away, one walk at a time. TheCavaliers were patient at the plate and took 12 walks, including two with the bases loaded in the bottom of the third. In the fourth, a walk and an error helped plate two more runs and put the Cavs up 9-2.

“Mike caught three games last week, so he hasn’t thrown from the mound in more than a week and he was rusty,”Sexton said of Blount, who walked nine and struck out three. “He put too many men on base and he knows that. In high school baseball, those runs are going to score.”

Moore picked things up in the third with a 1-2-3 inning. He then left two more runners on in the fourth when Phillip Goodman made a nice grab on Blount’s line drive down the first-base line to end the threat.

Salisbury went quietly in the fifth and sixth, as Moore retired the last eight batters he faced.

“He wasn’t anything near 100 percent. He was pitching on guts a lot today,”Kesler said of Moore, who missed three days of school last week. “He went out there and battled and worked his way through it.”

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