Holmes leads Cardinals to a sweep

Neil Holmes belted three home runs and had eight RBIs to help lead the Carson Cardinals 18 and under baseball team to a sweep of McQueen's summer team, the Northwest Royals, on Saturday at McQueen.

The Cardinals came back to win both games, winning the opener 9-6 and the nightcap 14-9. The Cardinals fell behind 4-0 in the first two innings and Northwest was threatening to break the game open when it had the bases loaded and no outs in the second inning.

But Todd Hendrix went on to strike out the side to escape the jam. After the rocky start, Hendrix allowed just two unearned runs the rest of the way while striking out eight.

The Cardinals trailed 4-0 in the fourth when it scored four runs to tie the game. Carl Winter hit a solo homer, Holmes singled and then four straight hits from Matt Bowman, Aaron Henry, Murph Glover and Ryan Henry tied the game.

Holmes belted a two-run shot in the fifth and a three-run shot in the seventh. Winter went 4-for-4 with three runs and Holmes was 3-for-3 with three runs.

In the nightcap, the Cardinals broke an 8-8 tie when they scored six runs in the sixth. Aaron Henry and Glover hit back-to-back doubles and Ryan Henry drove home Glover.

After Henry stole second, he scored on Adam Martin's double. Andrew James followed with a three-run homer. Holmes hit a three-run homer in the third.

Jon Teeter and James each had two hits and three runs. Martin was the winning pitcher.