Big week for Raiders baseball

It's early April and North Iredell is in third place in the North Piedmont 3A Conference. For now.

Let's see how these Raiders do with a tough slate of games this week.

North will play at Northwest Cabarrus Tuesday in a showdown between the conference's second and third place teams. Then North plays Bunker Hill Wednesday and will play at West Rowan on Thursday. West Rowan is only a half game behind the Raiders in the standings.

Three games in three days. That's a tough stretch for a team that relies so heavily on two pitchers.

With Bunker Hill being a non-conference game, look for head coach Matthew Poole to implement a few lineup changes. Dustin Huey will likely get the rare start on the mound. Nick Stutts will almost certainly suit up as catcher for Tyler Christenberry, who has been behind the plate every single inning this year.

Christenberry and Stutts may both pitch as well. It's not that Bunker Hill isn't an important game, but North definitely needs to rest some of its regulars in this one, which is sandwiched between two huge conference tilts.

If the Raiders win both conference games, they could challenge for the division crown. Losing both would drop them dangerously close to fifth place, the cut-off spot for the playoffs.

I think the most likely scenario is that North will split the conference games and battle West Rowan, Carson and Lake Norman for spots 3-6 in the standings.