(Dunn Area Sports Photo/ John Lucas)
Harnett Central Middle School clinched the conference baseball championship with a 14-4 win over visiting Coats-Erwin on Monday.
Luke Bailey pitched the complete game win for the Raiders (11-0), yielding two earned runs on three hits and five walks, with four strikeouts.
Dalton Ausley was 4-for-4, including a triple and two home runs, with three runs scored. Bailey was 3-for-3 with four runs.
Brandon Barefoot had two hits, including a double, and three runs scored. Dalton Snipes had two hits and two runs scored. Ethan Potash had one hit and one run scored. Jackson Griggs had one hit. Isaac Pilkington scored once.
Hunter Thompson, Jacob Hartman and Jamari Thompson had one hit apiece and Riley Colville, Jalen Evans, Dillon Faircloth and Shay Jackson scored one run apiece for the Falcons (9-2).
The Falcons took an early 3-0 lead in the first inning, but the Raiders responded with five runs in the bottom half of the inning.
Coats-Erwin scored once in the second to cut the lead to one, but Central scored nine unanswered runs over the next four innings, ending the game when an Ausley triple brought in three runs to put the 10-run rule into effect.
