HobbsDailyReport.com
North Lincoln High seniors Brady Dreenen and Trevor Whitley combined to one-hit Mooresville on Tuesday night as the fifth-seeded Knights nipped No. 4 seed Mooresville 1-0 in eight innings in a first-round game in the North Piedmont 3A-4A baseball tournament.
North Lincoln faces top-seeded Lake Norman in a North Piedmont 3A-4A baseball semifinal on Wednesday at 7 p.m. at Mooresville.
The Knights (14-6) scored their run in the top of the eighth inning en route to earning a semifinal spot opposite top-seeded Lake Norman (20-3) on Wednesday at 7 p.m. at Mooresville.
The other semifinal, also at Mooresville on Wednesday (4:30 p.m.) pits No. 3 South Iredell (16-7) versus No. 2 Alexander Central (17-8).
The tournament title game is scheduled Thursday at 7 p.m. at Mooreville.
The victory by North Lincoln also featured two RBIs by Nick Solomita and gives the Knights a chance to move up in the state playoff bid positioning if they can win the tournament.
Lake Norman’s regular season title locked up the league’s No. 1 4A playoff bid and the top-finishing 3A team, in fourth place, was South Iredell. If North Lincoln wins the tournament, it will jump above South Iredell when the 3A brackets are seeded.
In Tuesday games:
No. 1 Lake Norman 14, No. 8 Statesville 4: At Lake Norman, the Wildcats became 20-game winners by routing the Greyhounds (1-18) for the third time this season.
Lake Norman already owned wins of 11-0 and 11-1 over Statesville in the regular season.
No. 2 Alexander Central 6, No. 7 West Iredell 0: In Taylorsville, Grayson Chapman had two of the Cougars’ eight hits and drove in two runs to lead Alexander Central’s victory.
Matt Wilkinson pitched 5 2/3 innings, allowing five hits, walking one and striking out seven to gain a win for the Cougars. West Iredell did not get a hit off reliever Rhyne Johnson over the final 1 1/3 innings.
No one had more than one hit for the Warriors (5-19).
Nick Ward went six innings and took the loss for West Iredell, which went 0-3 against the Cougars this year when they were outscored 31-3 in those three games.
No. 3 South Iredell 4, No. 6 North Iredell 1: The Vikings won at home, beating the Red Raiders (7-15) for third time this year.
South Iredell won regular-season games over West Iredell 10-3 on the road and 6-1 last Friday at home.