Kevin Carver
Thursday, March 16, 2017 7:57 am

Local Sports:

R-S Central softball (5-1, 4-0) is legit, but they did fall to a very tough Chesnee last week in non-conference play. They will have East Burke this Friday (3/17) and East Rutherford on 3/24.

East Rutherford (2-1, 1-1) lost their first game last week to Burns, but this young group should be interesting to watch. Scoring hasn't been a problem with 19 runs in 3 games.

Chase (3-1, 2-1) has battled to gain a couple of close wins so far, but lost their first game to Crest last week. They host KIngs Mountain on the 21st.

Baseball:

East Rutherford (3-1, 2-1) has picked themselves up after an opening season loss to get three straight wins. They have Draughn 3/17 and R-S Central 3/24 at home.

R-S Central (3-1, 2-1) hasn't had to deal with scoring or pitching issues so far and they have just one loss...4-3 to Crest.

Chase (0-4) has lost three games by three runs or less so far and They have Kings Mountain on the 21st.

Girls Soccer: R-S Central 3-1. Chase 1-3-1. East Rutherford 1-2-1. Thomas Jefferson (3-1) has shown well on the soccer field so far.

TJCA continues to struggle as they are still winless in both baseball and softball.

NCAA Tourney: I love this time of year. March Madness. When I look at the brackets, there are some first round matchups I'm interested in. On Thursday I like Wisconsin-Virginia Tech, Butler-Winthrop, Maryland-Xaiver, Vandy-Northwestern and Middle Tenn-Minnesota. On Friday I like: Dayton-Wichita State and Miami-Michigan St.

Wisconsin has an ax to grind with their 8-seed and maybe the most discipline team in the tourney, but Va. Tech can score, can't rebound. Winthrop has their version of a Steph Curry in a sense, but Butler is a heavy hitter when on all cylinders. Maryland always tough, Xaiver usually more physical to handle in the paint. Vandy beat Florida and Iowa State, but also lost to a terrible Missouri in the last 10 games. NW doesn't have a bad loss all year and defends well. Middle Tenn. destroyed Vandy by 23 earlier in the season, Minnesota beat Vandy by just four points in only meeting. Miami can score, but Michigan St. might have the tougher schedule edge. The game of the first round has to be Dayton-Wichita State. Wichita State is among the top 20 in points scored, points allowed, rebounds and assist per game. Dayton's guard play is tough to match.

Teams to watch: Michigan, Rhode Island, Kentucky and Duke are on fire right now.

My Final Four: Duke, Gonzaga, UNC and Kansas. Duke-UNC in the finals. UNC a winner.

NASCAR: If anything, the sport got some ratings this weekend. In Vegas, Kyle Busch went over to Joey Logano and immediately tried to fight him after the race. Busch got the worst of it as Logano's pit crew threw him to the ground.

This is why Busch is mad. Brad Keselowski has trouble and is slowing up. Logano takes the bottom and Keselowski holds the top as teammates, but Busch is trailing right behind in the top lane on the final lap. So, Joey does a little blocking keep Kyle from passing. Busch makes room by sideswiping Logano as they enter turn three. Logano does drive in too hard, does get loose in going below the yellow line, which caused the wreck.

Neither were backing down on the last lap and I don't think it was intentional by Logano, but Logano probably isn't sympathetic since Busch initiated the contact. The blocking by teammates is more of the reason why Busch should be mad. Martin Truex deserved to win and that's his fifth win in the last 27 races.