The Pungo Raiders were eliminated from the NCISAA Class 1-A State Playoffs Friday afternoon after dropping a tight contest to Oakwood, 4-2.

After ace Cole Austin Woolard went the distance in Tuesday’s first-round match up against Wayne Country Day, head coach John Scott Cutler announced he would likely start right-hander Will Respess for the second-round game. But with so much on the line, Woolard spent the two days leading up to Friday applying conventional methods, like running, and unconventional methods, like eating pineapple, to loosen up his arm.

In what he figured could potentially be his last game in a Pungo uniform, Woolard told his coach he was ready to pitch and Cutler, who has relied on the right arm of his senior leader in big games for most of the season, decided to go with his ace.

Oakwood head coach Axel Smith also determined that his senior ace, Gabe Tippett, was his best chance at knocking off his opponent, but the Raiders would jump out to an early lead just minutes into the game.

After junior Dalton Etheridge struck out, sophomore Will Respess was awarded first base on a catcher’s interference. Woolard walked on four pitches and two batters later, sophomore Kellum Cahoon lined a single to right-center that put his team on top.

On defense, Pungo spent the majority of its day working out of jams, including leaving three runners stranded on three occasions. In the first, Tippett launched a triple to the fence. After Woolard hit Alex Goins with a fastball, he would induce two fly outs, not deep enough to score Tippett, and strike out Lowie Price on three pitches to get out of the inning. However, in the second inning, it all unraveled for Woolard.

Following a walk and a strikeout, Woolard hit the next three batters, as Peyton Piscorik, the initial walk, scored on a wild pitch. Cutler quickly came out of the dugout to replace his starter with Respess. A costly error, single and bases loaded walk plated four runs, putting the Eagles up 4-1.

Pungo managed to push across another run in the top of the third on an RBI-single by Ryan Tooley, who has been swinging one of the hotter bats for the Raiders in the second half of the season. But over the next four innings, Tippett began to find his rhythm, facing the minimum in the fourth, fifth and sixth.

Repess matched his counterpart in the runs column, despite leaving the bases loaded twice and allowing four hits and three walks. Pungo still needed two runs to save its season.

In the seventh, Goins came on to close and struck out senior Thomas Mann and sophomore Daniel Thomas to start things off. Sophomore Landon Woolard worked a walk and with the Pungo faithful nervously looking on, Etheridge kept the season alive with an infield single off the glove of the third baseman.

Respess stepped to the plate with the game-tying runs on base, but in the end, didn’t get a chance to save the game. Landon Woolard was thrown out at third base trying to advance on a passed ball.

“He just got caught in no man’s land,” Cutler said. “He’s taught to pick a direction and if it’s right, it’s right and if it’s wrong, it’s wrong. Today, it was wrong.”

Cahoon finished 2-for-3 at the plate, while Tippett picked up the win, striking out seven and allowing two runs in six innings.

“They had the bases loaded like four or five times,” Cutler said. “I cannot complain with the way we played today. That’s a good baseball team and we played right with them the whole day.”

With the loss, Pungo finishes the season with an 11-6 record.