North Moore rode an impressive pitching performance from Matthew Spivey Tuesday at Viking Field to defeat cross-county rival Union Pines 6-2 in Central Carolina Scholastic Summer League baseball.

A rising sophomore, Spivey tossed 5 and 2/3 innings for the Mustangs. On the night he allowed two earned runs on seven hits and four walks while fanning four batters en route to earning the win.

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UP vs NM: Summer Baseball

North Moore traveled to Cameron twice this week for cross-county Central Carolina Scholastic Summer League action at Viking Field. The Mustangs claimed a 6-2 Southwest division win Tuesday and topped Union Pines 6-5 Thursday in a comeback win. These shots are from Tuesday's game. Photos by Philip Taylor.

“Matthew is one of six rising sophomores we had on our team tonight,” said Mustang head coach Randy Wallace. “He is a veteran pitcher despite his age who came up big for us in school ball this year, and he showed a lot of composure on the mound tonight. He is just a great pitcher who hits his spots, and his future is bright for us.”

With the Southwest division victory, North Moore’s record moved to 1-3 for the summer.

“This was our first win of the season, so it was huge for us,” said Wallace. “The difference between this game and our last two losses at Richmond was that we played as a team tonight. We have been making some errors over the last week, but we cleaned that play up and hit the ball well.

“So this really got the monkey off our back. Also, it is always great to get a win against coach (Chad) Hill and his club because they are such a quality program.”

Union Pines outhit North Moore seven to three in the tilt, but baserunning blunders, five fielding errors and control trouble from the mound proved to be too much for the Vikings to overcome.

The Vike pitchers combined to walk nine batters and bean two more, while tallying five wild pitches. Furthermore, three of the Vikings’ five errors were on passed balls by the catcher.

Union Pines head coach Chad Hill felt his team made too many mental mistakes to expect to win.

“We had guys on base all the time, but we were just kind of our own worst enemy tonight. That is what happens when a good little pitcher is out there throwing strikes as we run the bases bad — it’s tough to win.”

With the loss the Vikings fell to 2-3-1 on the season.

In the bottom of the second Union Pines got its first two runners on with singles, but made the inning’s first out at third trying to take an extra base.

Union Pines later made two unforced errors on offense in the fifth frame. One was a first out made at third trying to take an extra base on a ball hit to the outfield. The second miscue came via a pickoff by Spivey that froze a Union Pines runner in his tracks and rendered him unable to even attempt a slide back to first. The end result equaled the Vikes failing to score in the frame despite opening the inning with three consecutive hits.

Meanwhile, North Moore built a 3-0 lead though two innings without registering a hit. Vike starter Jeffrey Thompson walked Spivey with one away in the first, and then Josh Lambert reached on an infield error. From there two wild pitches and two passed balls led to a Mustang run. North Moore added two tallies in the next frame on two more wild pitches, two walks and an RBI grounder by Kirby Lambert.

Two Mustang hits, two walks and two Vike errors saw North Moore push its lead to 6-0 through three-and-a-half innings of action. Mustang cleanup hitter Dustin Morrison drove in Josh Lambert, who got aboard with a single to right that got past the outfielder, allowing him to advance all the way to third while two runs crossed the plate in the form of Spivey and Bradley Maness.

The Vikes did manage to spoil the shutout in the sixth inning as they scratched for a pair of runs with two outs. Spivey opened the frame with back-to-back strikeouts, but then allowed the next three batters to reach as his pitch count began to rise.

Union Pines left fielder Tyler Barber started the rally with a double in the right-center gap. Next, Thompson drew a four-pitch walk and Clay Thomas followed by blistering a single to right that brought in Barber. It would be the last batter Spivey faced as he left the game having tossed 95 pitches.

Josh Wallace got the call from the bullpen to close out the game. The rising sophomore struggled a bit initially, allowing Thompson to score on a wild pitch and issuing a walk, but soon found his stride, forcing a pop-up to center to end the sixth. In the final frame he allowed one walk but left the runner stranded on first by forcing three pop-ups to bring the tilt to a close.

The two Moore County squads were scheduled to close out week two of CCSSL play by taking the field again in Cameron Thursday for a quick-turnaround rematch. Go online at www.thepilot. com for results and see Sunday’s Sports section for a recap.

R H E

North Moore 120 300 0 — 6 3 2

Union Pines 000 001 0 — 2 7 5

Spivey and Wallace (6); Thompson, J. McKay (4) and T. Davis (6) WP – Spivey LP – Thompson; Leading hitters – (NM) Spivey 0-1, 3 BB, 2 R, Lambert 1-4, R, D. Morrison 1-4, RBI, E. Morrison 0-1, 2 BB, HBP, Wallace 0-1, 3 BB, Maness 1-3, R, (UP) D. Garner 1-3, Barber 1-3, 2B, R, Thomas 1-2, RBI, BB, J. Dick 1-2, BB, K. Robinson 1-3, Davis 1-2, BB, SB.

Contact F.W. Manning II at frankwm2@gmail.com.