From staff reports

GRANITE QUARRY — The biggest win of the softball season for South Rowan came with head coach Dean Mullinax hundreds of miles away, anxiously following the game on his phone.

Mullinax is a JROTC instructor and must attend training courses every five years in order to maintain certification. This was Mullinax’s time, so he was out of state when his team won 6-5 in eight innings against East Rowan on Tuesday.

‘Uncle Sam still owns part of me and when Uncle Sam calls, you go,” Mullinax said. “I hated to not be there, but at the same time I knew the team was in good hands with (assistant coaches) Kacie Stamey and Bryan Ritchie. It was a very big win. the kind of win our girls have been working for, have been busting their tails for every day in practice. East has a great team and this is the first time we’ve been able to beat one of the top four in our league.”

Carson, West Rowan, Central Cabarrus and East all took regular-season championship hopes into Tuesday’s South Piedmont Conference games. Central Cabarrus, which has lost three in the SPC, handed Carson its third loss, 2-1.

East’s loss to fifth-place South (13-8, 7-7) was the fourth in the league for the Mustangs (12-6, 8-4) and knocked them out of title contention.

West had an easy one against Concord on Tuesday, and is in first place alone now with two losses. But that still could change. West plays at East on Wednesday at 5:30 p.m.

South and East got two runs in the third inning, Kynlee Dextraze hit a solo homer for South.

The Raiders went ahead 3-2 in the fourth.

East took a 4-3 lead in the sixth.

South was down to its last out in the seventh when the Raiders tied the game on a double by Danica Krieg and a single by Bailey Yon, South’s only upperclassman.

South scored twice in the eighth. Meghan Eagle singled, advanced to third on a double by Eva Shue. Campbell Withers had a sacrifice fly to to put South ahead. Carmen Thomas singled in the run that made it 6-4.

East scored one run in the bottom of the eighth, but South held on by executing on a triple play.

Eagle had four of South’s 11 hits. Dextraze had two. Withers had two RBIs.

Shue pitched five innings for South, while Ritchie pitched three. They combined for six strikeouts and two walks and allowed 10 hits.

For the Mustangs, Chloe Shank hit her seventh homer of the season. Addie Plott tripled. Maddie Roberts had two doubles and Kady Collins had one.

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CONCORD — Just about everyone had multiple hits for West Rowan in a 16-0, three-inning romp against Concord.

Brooke Kennerly had three hits and Emma Clarke’s two hits, included a homer.

West (14-3-1, 10-2) has won 10 in a row.

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CONCORD — Central Cabarrus (14-4, 10-3)  beat Carson 2-1 to split the season series.

Carson won the first meeting with the Vikings in extra innings.

Carson (14-7, 11-3) only got one hit against Central hurler Abby Ragan. Ragan struck out seven and walked three.

Central scored both of its runs with two outs in the first inning, getting two hits to go with a walk and an error. Danielle Smith had a double for the Vikings.

Landry Stewart led off the sixth inning with a double to break up Central’s no-hitter, and Stewart scored on Phoebe Cole’s groundout.

Stewart was 1-for-1. She walked twice and stole two bases.

Lonna Addison pitched very well for Carson, striking out eight, walking one and limiting the Vikings to four hits.