Matt Rutledge showed he could give the Carson High baseball team depth in its pitching staff next year by throwing six shutout innings for the Carson Cardinals in a 6-4 win over the Damonte Rebels on Friday at Ron McNutt Field.
Rutledge carried a one-hit shutout into the sixth inning when he ran into the only serious trouble he faced. He allowed two singles and walked a batter to load the bases with two outs. After falling behind 3-0 to the next hitter, he induced a groundout to end the inning before being removed from the game.
Carson took a 2-0 lead in the second without the benefit of a hit. Rob Valerius walked, stole second, went to third on an error and scored on Markus Adams' RBI groundout. Drew Good brought home another run with a safety squeeze bunt to make it 2-0.
In the third, Bryt Lewis and Tony Fagan singled and David Leid followed with a two-run double. Valerius then hit an RBI single to make it 5-0.
In the seventh, Joe Skates singled and scored all the way from first on a hit and run when Paul Cagle singled to right field.
Skates had three hits, including a triple, Lewis had two hits and Kyle Stone, Stephen Sawyers, Good and Rutledge all added a hit. The Cardinals are scheduled to play again at 6 p.m. today against the Nevada Yankees at McNutt Field.