Baseball
Round II State 6A West
Alexander Central 3 Watauga 2
Taylorsville: The Cougars survived a battle over their rivals from Boone and move-on to Round IV by beating Watauga for the fourth time this season.
Carter Bowman went 6.1 innings for the win and Sophomore Gunnar Johnson got the final two outs for the save.
Watauga led 2-1 going to bottom of inning-four. AC would get single runs in the 4th, 5th and 6th innings. Gunnar Johnson’s double chased home the game winner in the 6th.
Watauga put two runners on base in the 7th but catcher Graham Hoke shot-down a runner at third and Johnson put the game away.
Koa Mikeal had two hits and scored twice for AC.
The win puts Alexander Central at 24-3. Next up, Northwestern Conference rival St Stephens, who advanced with an 8-4 victory over Asheville. If the Blue and Gold make the regional final, they’d need to down St Stephens for the fourth-time this season.
Watauga……2 runs…5 hits…0 errors
Alex Cent.. 3 runs…7 hits…0 errors