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A win Tuesday at Asheboro would assure Northeast Guilford a share of the Mid-Piedmont 3-A baseball title.

Northeast emerged atop the murky conference standings after a pair of wins last week.

The Rams (16-3, 6-2) avenged their first loss of the season by beating Ledford 3-1 Tuesday in a pitcher's duel that Northeast head coach David Lawing called "as good a high school game as you're going to see." The Rams took a 1-0 lead into the seventh inning behind Luis Paula before scoring on a pair of sacrifice flies.

On Friday, Northeast got a one-hitter from Harrison Phillips to blank North Forsyth 2-0 and assume sole possession of first, a game ahead of their two victims that week.

"Ledford was the biggest game of the season, then we turn around and play North Forsyth and that's the biggest game of the season, and now we turn around and play Asheboro and that's the biggest game of the season," Lawing said. "The conference is so tight that one game one way or the other is going to make a difference."

COWBOYS STAND TALL: The bigger the game, the better Brock Hudgens pitches. The senior Southwest Guilford righty struck out 14 and stranded the tying runner at third to preserve the Cowboys' sixth straight conference win Friday, a 4-3 nailbiter over conference leader East Forsyth.

"He didn't want to come off the mound," Southwest head coach Reid Holmes said. "With the situation and the adrenaline, he was strong."

Freshmen Matt Orth and Matt Dale homered in the win for Southwest (18-4, 7-3), which has recovered from a three-game losing streak to pull within a game of first place with a week left in the regular season. The Cowboys are tied with Glenn and a game ahead of Ragsdale, which has lost four straight. Northwest Guilford, charging for a wild-card bid to the playoffs, plays East Forsyth on Tuesday in one of Southwest's last chances to make up ground.

"We can only control what we're doing," Holmes said. "We've prided ourselves on just playing the game at hand and not worrying about what's coming later in the week. I'm not going to say we readjusted our goals, because we didn't. But obviously, starting 1-3 you start thinking about positioning yourself as high as possible to make a playoff run."

Hudgens also struck out 14 against Southeast Guilford and 16 in a six-inning win over High Point Central. His success has grown the more he's been able to complement a mid- to upper-80s fastball with a curveball and change-up, and Holmes said that now he's "not afraid to throw any of the three at any point in the count."

"He's definitely been very consistent all year," Holmes said. "He's done everything I've asked him to do."

Contact Tom Keller at 373-7034 or tom.keller@news-record.com