Heavy production from the bottom third of its lineup, a 2.96 team ERA and three nice road wins have the North Carroll Panthers undefeated (6-0) heading into today's showdown at Westminster against an Owls team that lost to No. 1-ranked Dulaney on Monday, 4-3.
Dustin Nash, the No. 6 hitter in North Carroll's lineup is batting .474 with a .542 on-base average. He went 6-for-6 last week with a home run, three doubles and three RBIs, giving him five RBIs for the season.
Erick Busick, batting No. 7 in the Panthers' lineup, has a .375 average and .476 on-base percentage. He went 3-for-4 with a home run, triple and four RBIs in an 11-7 win over Linganore. The Panthers rallied for four runs in the top of the eighth inning to take that game.
Busick also went 1-for-1 with a crucial RBI on a sacrifice fly in a 9-7 win over South Carroll.
Ryan Myers leads the pitchers with an 0.93 ERA and a 3-0 record that includes a save in 15 innings of work in relief.
The win over Linganore as well as earlier victories at Thomas Johnson and Frederick give coach Denny Snyder reason for optimism as the weather-plagued season wears on.
"They're nice games to have won," Snyder said.
His team hasn't played in a week, but he's not upset about that.
"It was probably a good time for a break because we had a couple of people banged up," Snyder said.
Westminster (3-2) will provide a stringent test for the Panthers, who are led offensively by Jesse Alvarez and Eddie Ashwell. Ashwell also has a pitching victory over Liberty.
The Owls failed to get enough clutch hits against Dulaney, stranding five runners and twice running themselves out of innings.
Dulaney (7-1), aided by a catcher's interference call, scored all of its runs in the fourth inning after two were out.
North Carroll also faces Central Maryland Conference foe Urbana tomorrow and then plays defending Carroll County champion Liberty on Friday in a tough stretch of games.
"I think in this league any team can beat any other team on a given day," Snyder said. "If the weather keeps backing things up, we'll be playing four games a week soon, and might have to go to Saturdays because we have to finish our 14 league games by May 9."
The Panthers are 4-0 in the CMC so far.