Trojans clicking after slow start

By Bill Kiser
Kannapolis Citizen
Northwest Cabarrus head baseball coach Joe Hubbard has referred to the Trojans as “a Jekyll and Hyde” team this season.
But Northwest has been showing less and less of its Jekyll tendencies lately, and that’s what Hubbard wants to see from his players if the Trojans hope to challenge for the North Piedmont Conference title.
Northwest Cabarrus, which was 8-3 overall and 5-2 in the NPC entering the championship game of the Intimidators Classic on Tuesday night, has bounced back from a slow start to win six of its last seven games.
After a 6-4 league victory over West Iredell on March 18 extended the their winning streak to four games, the Trojans hit a speed bump — a 10-1 NPC loss to Carson on March 20.
“We were playing well … but we ran into a buzzsaw at Carson,” Hubbard said. “They had 16 hits, and while we didn’t make any errors … they played a great ballgame. It wasn’t for lack of effort on our part; we were ready to play, but they just played that much better.
“I’ve called them a Jekyll and Hyde bunch – sometimes we’re really great, and there’s times when we’ve been beat that we weren’t very good. … But we’re getting better.”
Still, it served as a wake-up call of sorts for Northwest, which is currently in a three-way tie (with South Rowan and Mooresville) for second place in the conference standings.
“We told them that we haven’t arrived by no means,” Hubbard said. “We know that we’re not the most talented team when we step on the field. We’ve got to work harder, and we’ve got to do that in practice. We had a great practice after we lost … and it carried right on into the tournament.
“We’ve just got to stay focused on getting better. … If we don’t get any better, then we’re going to start getting beat.”
The Trojans, who have won the Intimidators Classic twice and shared the title with North Mecklenburg in the event’s five-year history, opened the tournament with a 10-2 win over A.L. Brown in the opening round on March 22, then knocked off Central Cabarrus 8-1 on Monday to advance to the final.
“We want to have fun in this tournament … and we want the kids to come out and enjoy it,” Hubbard said. “It’s a lot more fun when we win than when we lose, but we’ve had two quality games back to back, and we’ve done some great things offensively.”
After the tournament, the Trojans do not return to action until April 1, when they host conference leader East Rowan – the first of a three-game, four-day stretch that also sees them play J.M. Robinson at home in a nonconference game on April 2 and at Lake Norman in a league game on April 4.
“It’s good to see us progressing,” Hubbard said. “We’re not the same team that we were four or five years ago, when we sat back and watched guys knock it all over the ballpark. We’ve got to initiate some things, manufacture some things early and try to get ourselves on the board.
“If we can stay in the game and get on the board early, they seem to play better as the game goes on.”