The Carson High baseball team exploded for eight runs in the fourth inning as it overcame a 4-2 deficit on its way to a 15-5 win at Wooster on Thursday in a game that was called after five innings due to the 10-run rule.
"Our offense was the story of the game," Carson coach Steve Cook said. "The last thing I thought we were going to to is 10-run a Wooster team.
"Everybody up and down the lineup helped us out one way or another. I was happy with our performance."
Royal Good, who had two hits and reached base all four times, led off the game with a home run. In the second, Tony Fagan singled went to second on an error and scored on two consecutive wild pitches to give Carson (18-6, 14-2 in the Sierra League) a 2-0 lead.
Wooster, though, scored four runs in the bottom of the second to take a 4-2 lead. In the third, Kevin Schlange doubled and Logan Parsley hit the first of his two two-run doubles and Fagan followed with an RBI single to give the Senators a 5-4 lead.
Carson broke it open in the fourth. T.J. Hein doubled, Bryt Lewis walked and Good hit an RBI single. After Schlange walked, Parsley belted another two-run double. David Leid also had an RBI double, then Jeremiah Teeter and Hein walked to load the bases. Lewis walked to force in a run and a wild pitch scored Lewis to make it 13-4.
In the fifth, after Markus Adams walked, Nick Smallman belted a triple to score Johnny Hazeltine and Jack Maloney had an RBI single to make it 15-4.
Josh Caron went the distance for the win. "Other than the second he pitched pretty dang good," Cook said. "He struggled a little bit with his command, but he used his defense. He labored through, stuck with it and grinded it out."
Carson committed no errors. "We played very good defensively," Cook said. Parsley, Fagan and Good all had two hits for Carson.
The Senators played without Brooks Greenlee, who was ill. Cook said he hoped Greenlee would return Saturday.
He said Leid filled in admirably at catcher. "David did a very, very good job for us behind the dish," Cook said.
Carson will host Wooster in a doubleheader at Ron McNutt Field on Saturday, beginning at 10 a.m. It will be Merk Human Day in honor of longtime Carson baseball fan Merk Human, who died in 2001. All proceeds from gate and snack bar sales will go to the Merk Human Scholarship for graduating seniors on the CHS baseball team.
CARSON JVS 12, WOOSTER 2
Stephen Sawyers pitched a complete game three-hitter in the game that was called after five innings due to the 10-run rule. Paul Cagle went 2-for-3 with a two-run home run, Kyle Stone was 3-for-3, Mason Bondi went 2-for-4 and Cody Barr, Cody Bone, Tyler Smith and Nate Reno all added a hit for Carson.