But Moore can only pitch in so many games. Nate Woodburn gets to hit in all of them.

Woodburn continued his recent tear at the plate and Moore struck out 10 North Henderson batters in four innings Tuesday night for an easy 11-1 win. The five-inning affair lasted little more than 90 minutes and looked like a promising start in the Cavaliers’ 2Astate playoff quest.

“This was a great feeling. We were really fired up to get past these guys,”Woodburn said. “We knew we’d play either East Davidson or West Wilkes next and that’s going to be a real emotional game for us.”

As it turned out, the Cavs will play host to West Wilkes, the team that knocked North out of the playoffs last season in a disastrous second-round game in Spencer. Also last night, West Wilkes grabbed a 7-6 win over defending state champ East Davidson, North’s Central Carolina Conference rival.

The way Woodburn is swinging the bat lately, it might not matter who the Cavs (19-5) face. The senior shortstop went 3-for-4 against North Henderson (12-10) and capped a four-run second inning with a monstrous home run to dead center field. He finished with three RBIs and four runs scored.

In the last four games, Woodburn is 10-for-16 with 11 runs scored and eight RBIs. He’s improved his batting average to .417.

“I’m starting to come around. I’m seeing the ball better,”Woodburn said. “I’m being more selective at the plate and making them throw me the pitch I want to hit.”

In the second, it was a fastball from Josh Wright that cleared the 397-foot sign with plenty of room to spare.

“It was a waist-high fastball. He put it right there to me and my eyes got real big,”Woodburn said. “That’s probably the best one I’ve hit yet. The guys in the dugout said I crushed it.”

The two longballs he hit last week in the CCC tournament were more routine, just what any coach would expect from his leadoff batter.

“If Nathan keeps going like that …” North head coachBill Kesler said. “He really keys our offense, and now he’s broken out with the power bat. He’s real hot right now.”

A hot hitter alone is one thing, but North Henderson also had to contend with Moore on the mound. The 6-foot-6 left-hander struck out the side in the first inning — while allowing an un-earned run — then retired the side in order on Ks in the second. Three more strikeouts in the fourth gave him 10 before letting Brandon Doby finish. Moore threw just 61 pitches.

“After talking to a whole bunch of people over the weekend, Daniel Moore — he impressed me a whole lot more than what anybody said,”Knights head coach Scott Rhodes said. “He just got better and stronger.”

Brandon Childress collected the only two hits of the game off Moore. In the first inning, he blooped a soft liner to right field that was misplayed. He scored from second base on an infield error, and despite throwing their ace, the Cavs trailed 1-0 in a matter of minutes.

“That was ugly,”Kesler said bluntly. “When you’re a little tight, you don’t move your feet and that leads to errors. But when they scored that one, I didn’t figure they’d get any more.”

That’s why Moore got the starting nod, although the Cavaliers didn’t know who would toe the rubber until just before the game. After deliberating whether or not to save Moore for the second round, the decision was made to make sure North Rowan got there.

“We knew they had some good hitters and they’d be throwing their ace, so we figured we might as well go with what got us here,” said Moore, who froze five Knights for called third strikes on perfectly placed fastballs.

“Early in the game they were crowding the plate and I went inside a couple of times to back them off. Then they couldn’t handle the outside pitch.”

As expected, the Knights’ one run didn’t stand up for long. Woodburn singled in the bottom of the first, stole second, took third when the ball sailed into the outfield and slid home when the throw into third base skipped toward the Cav dugout.

In the bottom of the second, Phillip Goodman sent two runs home with a double before scoring on Woodburn’s blast. TheCavs then batted around in the fourth inning, getting three straight RBI singles from Woodburn, Erik Mowery and Brad Canipe.

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