PINETOWN – The Northside Panthers had trouble putting together any offense Thursday night, but senior hurler Ryan Arthur did his best to keep it close. However, East Carteret scored three late runs to come away with the 4-0 win.

In the first inning, Arthur tried to help his own cause, reaching base on an error, but the threat was quickly halted when he was thrown out attempting to steal.

For the Mariners, pitcher Brennan Lewis held the Panthers at bay, retiring eight straight before allowing a runner to advance into scoring position in the fifth. It was the second of three errors on the night for East Carteret.

During Lewis’ stretch of sitting down eight Panthers in order, he fanned six and did not allow the ball to leave the infield.

“For us, we made some mistakes,” head coach Gil Robbins said. “We couldn’t capitalize on pitching, which I thought was excellent. I thought we did what we needed to do to hold them down, but when you don’t make plays that are important plays, they usually come back to haunt you.” 

Arthur gave up a run in second on Joesph Lewis’ sacrifice fly, but the Panther righty fanned three in the inning to limit the damage.

The game remained 1-0 until the fifth inning, but both pitchers did the job to keep their opponent off the scoreboard.

“It was a pitchers duel, and it would have gone the whole way as a pitchers duel had we made some routine plays,” Robbins said. “Tonight was not the best night for them, and we’ll regroup and come back Tuesday”

In the fifth inning, the Panthers defense committed two errors, which allowed the Mariners to bring home the second run of the game.

“We played the leader in the conference, and people expect them to win.” Robbins said. “However, it is unfortunate we couldn’t capitalize on opportunities we had the two or three times they were there for us.”

East Carteret added two more insurance runs in the seventh after a triple and single to put the game out of reach for the Panther bats.

In all, Arthur sat down nine in seven innings of work, while his counterpart struck out 10 in a complete game effort.

Northside falls to 6-9 on the season and 3-4 in conference action. The Panthers return to action April 22 at Pamlico County.