Carrington, N.D. (NewsDakota.com)—–The Carrington Cardinals picked up a pair of 1 run victories on Saturday with a 4-3 win over Larimore and a 5-4 come from behind win over South Border in 8 innings.

Carrington  4     Larimore  3

Larimore would get on the board quickly with a pair of runs in the top of the first with back to back doubles from the leadoff batter Allen Farrell and Shawn Niebolte.  Niebolte scored on Bode Gram’s RBI single. The Polar Bears started the game with 4 consecutive hits on a cool morning at the Carrington city park with a 34 degree temperature at game time. The Polar Bears had an opportunity to have a big inning but had a runner thrown out at second base on a  steal attempt and cleanup batter Jacob Warnke who had an RBI single scoring Niebolte was thrown out at home plate for the second out. Carrington answered with 2 runs in the bottom of the first. Grady Shipman scored on an RBI double from Ethan Buskness. Buskness would score on an RBI single from Hudson Schmitz. Shipman would add a pair of RBI groundouts in the second inning (plating Noah Paulson) and in the fourth inning (scoring Jack Erickson). Leading 4-2, Larimore would score a run in the final inning (5th inning) on a RBI single from Bo Solseng scoring Russell McLean cutting the Cardinal lead to 4-3. The Polar Bears would strand 2 base runners in the final inning and stranded 9 total runners in the 5 inning game. Farrell and Gram had a pair of hits to pace Larimore’s offense. Farrell took the loss on the mound.

Lucas Hendrickson had 2 hits for Carrington and Kael Kovar picked up the pitching win with Austin Trelstad getting the save in relief.

 

Carrington  5     South Border  4  (8 innings)

Carrington would score 2 runs in the bottom of the seventh inning to tie the game at 4-4 and force extra inning in the Region 3 contest with the South Border (SB) Mustangs. SB would score 1 run in the first inning on back to back doubles from Trent Finck and Marshall Lindgren leading off the game. The Cardinals would turn a 6-4-3 double play to get of the first inning jam. SB added 2 runs in the fourth (RBI double from Seth Wolf scoring Parker Salwei, and Wolf later scoring on a base hit from Finck and a Carrington error). SB added another unearned run in the fifth inning aided by a throwing error. Nathan Schauer would end up scoring on a wild pitch giving the Mustangs a 4-2 lead into the 7th inning.

Carrington would score 2 runs in the first inning, an RBI double from Ethan Buskness scored Lucas Hendrickson who singled to start the inning. Buskness moved to third on a throwing error and scored on an RBI sacrifice flyout from Hudson Schmitz. After the first inning, Carrington picked up just 1 hit and 3 total baserunners until the 7th inning. SB starting pitcher Jace Nitschke retired 16 of 18 batters from the last out of the first inning through the sixth inning. Carrington would get back to back walks from Michael Clifton and Jacob Page. A past ball would allow Michael Clifton and Corbin Clifton (running for Page) to advance to 2nd and third base with no outs. Jack Erickson would get an RBI groundout scoring Michael Clifton and Corbin Clifton would score on Noah Paulson’s RBI single tying the game at 4-4. Ethan Buskness would leadoff the bottom of the eighth inning with a double, move to third on an infield groundout and scored the game winning run on Michael Clifton’s RBI sacrifice flyout to left field to win the game 5-4.

Carrington improved to 5-1 overall and 3-0 in Region 3 play and South Border dropped to 1-4 overall and 1-3 in Region 3. SB is playing in their first season ever and recorded a 5-4 win over Sheyenne-New Rockford earlier in the day for the schools first win on the diamond.

Carrington will host Kidder County on Tuesday at 3:30 and the game will be aired on AM 1600 KDAK (THE CARDINAL), FM 100.1, and www.newsdakota.com