The North Moore baseball team continues to ride the wave of its winning streak as it blanked Gray Stone 10-0 at Kannapolis’ Intimidators Stadium Friday in the regular-season finale.

The red-hot Mustangs hammered out 10 hits, while starting pitcher Rider Maness and reliever Dustin Morrison combined to pitch the shutout, with Maness fanning four batters and Morrison three.

Maness pitched the first three innings and Morrison came on to pitch the final two innings as the Mustangs 10-run ruled the host Knights. This is North Moore’s fifth shutout during its present nine-game winning streak.

“With this being our ninth straight win, I would have to say, we’re peaking at the right time,” said North Moore coach Brandon Reynolds. “With the tournament and playoffs coming, you need to be playing your best and we’re getting there.”

North Moore completes its regular-season finishing in third place in the Yadkin Valley Conference with a league mark of 10-6 and 13-8 overall. The conference tournament opens Monday with the Mustangs hosting sixth-place Chatham Central (8-8 YVC, 12-11 overall). The two teams split during the regular season, with each team winning on their home field. The game is scheduled to start at 7 p.m.

The semifinals are scheduled for Tuesday at West Montgomery with the first game slated to start at 4:30 p.m. and the second game scheduled to start at 7 p.m. The championship is also to be played at West Montgomery Thursday.

South Stanly won the regular season title with a 15-1 conference mark, followed by West Montgomery with a 12-4 record, North Moore, East Montgomery (9-7), Albemarle (8-8), Chatham Central, North Rowan (7-9) South Davidson (2-14) and Gray Stone (1-15). The state playoffs are set to go off with the first-round games being played May 11.

North Moore opened the scoring in the top of the first inning when Cody Vaughn reached base on a walk, followed by Landon Auman being hit by a pitch. Vaughn scored when Maness reached base on an error. Auman scored on an RBI grounder by Justin Marley. Maness later scored to put the Mustangs up 3-0.

The Mustangs added a run in the second frame when Luke Auman hit a triple and scored on a grounder by Heath Carriker, putting North Moore up 4-0.

North Moore broke the game open in the fifth inning with three straight singles by Vaughn, Landon Auman and Maness. Then Marley and Morrison both hit doubles, with Marley’s driving in a pair of runs. Colton Yadkois drew a walk, followed by Luke Auman’s third hit of the game and driving in a run for the Mustangs’ 10-0 lead.

In the bottom half of the sixth inning, Morrison fanned all three batters he faced, preserving the shutout Mustang victory.

Luke Auman paced the Mustang attack with a triple, a pair of singles and one RBI. Morrison finished with a double, a single and an RBI while Marley had a double and three runs driven in. Landon Auman had an RBI single with Maness, Yedkois and Vaughn adding one single each. Vaughn and Carriker had one RBI each.