By Jordan Honeycutt
sports@salisburypost.com
Baseball deja-vu occurred in beautiful, sunny Pineville Wednesday, as Charlotte Catholic eliminated Carson for the second consecutive year by a score of 6-2.
Carson stayed close to the powerhouse Cougars of Catholic in the early innings but were doomed in the end by uncharacteristic errors.
“I thought that we came out focused tonight and played well early, got on top of them and felt good but fell victim to bad play in the field and a couple of lucky bloop hits, but that is all part of the game of baseball,” Carson Coach Chris Cauble said.
Cauble couldn’t be more right in his statement that his Cougars just not being able to catch a break. Unlucky happenings were abundant, be it repeated failed pick-off attempts by catcher Joseph Basinger, including one which was extremely close and even brought Cauble out for a pow-wow with the field umpire, or as mentioned in the field with booted and dropped balls.
The second round of the state playoffs has definitely been cruel to Cauble’s Cougars, as they have never advanced past the round.
“We are all really disappointed and didn’t want to go out this way again, but we got runners on base and just couldn’t capitalize.” Carson shortstop Gunnar Hogan said.
Hogan, a senior who was obviously emotional and a bit distraught after the loss said “It’s just really sad and sucks that I played in my last game in a Carson uniform and I just wanted this one for the guys. I’m really going to miss our unity and the fact that everybody on this team likes each other, we get along and we love baseball.”
Catholic was led to victory by their ace hurler, Danny Stewart, who is a tall, crafty southpaw and boasted a sterling 11-1 record coming into the game with Carson.
Carson got to Stewart a bit early as the game was deadlocked at 2 before Catholic plated two runs in bottom of the fifth and sixth, which Carson could not recover from.
“My key on the mound is all about getting ahead and I didn’t do that early as I fell behind, but I was able to settle in the later innings when it matters most,” Stewart said.
He did just that as the Cougars came to bat in the top of the seventh, the Carson contingent on hand became boisterous, but Stewart swiftly said “Shhhh,” as he struck out the side to advance Catholic.
“We expect Danny to always keep the score low for us and so if we get two or three runs for him, we usually feel pretty good about the result,” said Catholic coach Randy Belk.
“Give Carson credit though, if someone goes 9-3 in the NPC, then they are a pretty good ball team. They knocked us back a bit early, but our strong points of pitching and defense and that won the game for us.”
Carson received a solid effort on the mound from Josh Martin, who blanked Mount Pleasant last week and held his own early against Stewart before running out of gas in the later innings.
Carson will have to wait at least one more season to try and reach the third round of the playoffs for the first time and will have to do so with two of their offensive stars in Hogan, catcher Joseph Basinger, second baseman Kyle Youngo and outfielder Tripp Cross graduating.
“I hate it for our seniors, but I told them after the game that I’m extremely proud of them for fighting back from what was a rough start to the season to finish tied for second in the conference and making it back here to the second round,” Cauble said.
While the season ends for the Cougars of Carson and the kids turn their attention to legion or summer ball, the “other” Cougars of Catholic will be back in action at home Friday as they play host to Marvin Ridge, who bested J.M.Robinson 2-0.