Wishek, N.D. (NewsDakota.com)—–The Carrington Cardinals opened the high school season on the road at Wishek and defeated the South Border Mustangs 8-3 in a Region 3 matchup.  Neither team could get much going offensively until late in the game and a combined 7 hits overall in the contest.

Carrington would score first on an RBI single from Jack Erickson in the first inning that plated Josh Bickett.  South Border starting pitcher Ryken Salwei loaded the bases with a pair of walks and a hit batter with one out but would get out of the jam with a pair of strikeouts to end the inning.

Cardinal starting pitcher Grady Shipman went five innings to earn the victory, allowing just one hit and one earned run. Shipman recorded 9 strikeouts, striking out the side in the second, third, and fifth innings. Shipman allowed 1 walk and hit 1 batter. The Cardinals built a 3-0 lead going into the bottom of the fourth inning when South Border’s James Schumacher doubled to start the inning and later scored on a Ryken Salwei sacrifice bunt. The Cardinals added 2 unearned runs in the sixth inning thanks to a pair of Mustang errors. South Border greeted Carrington relief pitcher Hudson Schmitz with a pair of runs in the bottom of the sixth, loading the bases with only 4 pitches thrown with singles from Connor Kosiak and Schumacher and Daniel Schumacher was hit by pitch. Seth Wolf delivered an RBI on a squeeze bunt that plated Kosiak. Salwei followed the bunt with an RBI sacrifice flyout to centerfield before Schmitz retired Berkely Frantz to end the inning. The Cardinals, leading 5-3 heading into their final at bat scored 3 runs with 2 outs and nobody on base. Erickson, Kael Kovar, and Noah Paulson all walked with 2 outs before Owen Hagel delivered a 2 run single plating Erickson and Kovar. Paulson scored from third on a double steal for the final run, giving the Cards an 8-3 victory with Schmitz retired 3 of 4 batters in the Mustangs final at bat.

Bickett, Lucas Hendrickson, Erickson, and Hagel all had 1 hit in thegame for Carrington and South Borders James Schumacher had 2 hits and Kosiak had 1 hit. The Cardinals will travel to New Rockford on Monday for a Region 3 matchup with the Sheyenne-New Rockford Blacksox. The game with start at 4:00 P.M. and will be aired on AM 1600 KDAK (THE CARDINAL), FM 100.1, and www.newsdakota.com