GRANITEQUARRY— The season’s trend continued for East Rowan’s Mustangs here Wednesday night in a 2-1 baseball loss to first-place Central Cabarrus.

Central’s hard-throwing Brian York bested East’s Jeremy Teague in a pitchers’ duel that saw York get defensive support when he needed it and Teague get hurt by four errors.

Coach Jeff Safrit’s seventh-place Mustangs (5-6 overall, 3-6 in the 3A SouthPiedmont Conference) still had a chance to tie it or win it in the last of the seventh inning. A sliding catch by leftfielder Michael Campion robbed East’s Bobby Parnell of an extra-base hit with two runners on base.

York (3-0) struck out 16 Mustangs and pitched a five-hitter, but would have been in trouble had Campion and first baseman Josh Fregosi not made big defensive plays. Fregosi robbed Nick Lefko of a hit to right field by going to his right with two outs in the sixth inning and an East runner, Calvin Hayes Jr., at second. Fregosi then threw to York for the putout.

Hayes had opened the inning with a long double off the fence in center, a blast that missed going out by a couple of feet.

“Calvin’s ball hit probably 18 inches from going out. Then they make the play over here (Fregosi) with two outs to save a run. They make the play (Campion) out there in left-center on Bobby’s ball. It’s been kind of like that all year,” said Safrit.

It was the Mustangs’ second 2-1 loss to coach Bryan Tyson’s Vikings (10-2, 8-2) and fourth one-run loss in league action.

“If we get a hit here and there, we can play with anybody. I told them (East players) anytime you don’t score two runs, we don’t win,” said Safrit.

Hayes, 2-for-2, reached base safely three times, once when he was hit by a pitch and was the only Mustang who didn’t strike out. Two of East’s other three hits were of the infield variety. East had six runners in scoring position, but only Chad Sansbury could score on Drew Davis’ infield single in the third.

“I think the main thing is wanting to be in a position when we need to have a hit,” said Safrit. “I don’t know how many we’ve got that want to be in that position.”

York struck out three batters in three different innings and seven in a row at one stretch while getting his 16 Ks.

“He’s a good pitcher, but that’s embarrassing right there,” said Safrit. “We’ve faced people that are pitching at Carolina and different places. Sixteen is embarrassing to me, period.”

Teague (2-2) also had his share of strikeouts, eight, while pitching a four-hitter. He also walked four batters with one of them, Todd Greene, scoring the deciding run on Fregosi’s double in the fifth inning.

“Jeremy pitched great,” said Safrit. “He actually pitched a little better the other night against Sun Valley. (Teague had a no-hitter going into the sixth inning while beating the Spartans last week). Central’s probably a little bit better hitting team than Sun Valley.”

Safrit, with six league losses and the season past the halfway mark, knows it’s going to be difficult for the Mustangs to get one of the league’s three state 3A playoff berths in the regular season.

“This one probably put us pretty close,” he said. “We may not be able to make it, but I think we can help decide who does.We may be in seventh place, but I know there’s a lot of these teams that don’t want to play us.”

York’s 16-strikeout performance was Central’s second great pitching performance of the week. Southpaw Thomas Wilson hurled a one-hit shutout against West Rowan on Tuesday.

“Brian York had two rough starts at the beginning of the year, but then his last two starts have really been excellent. He pitches like that and Wilson pitches like he did the other day against West, we feel pretty good about our chances,” said the Central coach.