YEATESVILLE — On beautiful sunny afternoon the Northside baseball team was just a little bit brighter as pitcher Ryan Arthur threw a gem to lead the Panthers to an 8-1 victory over Mattamuskeet in Game 1 of the Northside Easter tournament on Saturday.
Arthur threw five innings of no-hit ball as he struck out seven and walked none, while the Panthers offense backed him up with a run in the first, two in the third and four in the fourth to make it a 7-0 game at the time of his departure.
“Our defense was able to make some plays behind him, but overall Ryan Arthur pitched really well,” Northside coach Keith Boyd said.
Shane Cuthrell got Mattamuskeet’s lone hit, while starting pitcher Gage Sadler earned the loss.
At the plate, Northside’s fireworks were ignited by leadoff hitter Caleb Sherman who went 3-3, stole three bases and scored four runs.
“Any time Caleb gets on he allows me to coach a little bit,” Boyd said. “He’s got a little speed and we can do some things with him and (Brandon) Marsh hitting behind him. When he gets on most of the time good things happen.”
That they did, as Marsh, the No. 2 hitter, would go 2-4 with an RBI and cleanup hitter Dillon Cutler finished 2-2 and drove in a run. Tyler Waters led Northside with two RBIs and went 1-4 at the plate, while Gray Burbage and Caleb Coltrain each added a hit. Burbage would also pitch the final two innings and allowed one run while striking out three batters.
The field for this year’s Easter tourney was split in half as Southside and East Carteret joined Mattamuskeet at Northside, while Plymouth hosted South Creek, Bertie and Hertford County.
The Seahawks played the second game of the tourney and fell 4-3 to East Carteret in a thriller.
Down 3-1 heading into the seventh and final inning, Southside was able to rally against reliever Mark Carroway, who came in for starter Jay Phillips who threw six solid innings and allowed one run.
Eric Vick got the ball rolling as he led off the inning with a walk and was joined on base by Andrew Jones who singled. The Seahawks loaded the bases when Blake Jones dropped a perfect bunt and legged it out for a base hit. Southside cut the deficit to 4-2 when Alex Graves hit a grounder that led to a force out at home but was misplayed by the Mariners when they tried to turn a double play at first which allowed Jones to cross the plate.
Terrill Moore followed up with an RBI single that cut the lead to 4-3 in the next at bat.
The Seahawks looked as if they were going to tie up the game when Hayden Bogart blooped the ball to right but East Carteret’s Jacob Fraley made a tremendous diving catch to preserve the lead and the win.
“I felt like what we saw today was a good playoff-type atmosphere and I’m proud of the way our guys fought,” Southside coach Jeff Carrow said. “We didn’t have any errors and we had a great pitching performance by Terrill (Moore) again. We left a couple of guys on base and that cost us there, but overall it’s just a good playoff-type ball game.”
Trey Elks would go 2-4 with an RBI to lead the Seahawks, while Blake Jones was 2-4 and scored two runs.
In Plymouth, the Vikings topped Bertie 16-1, while South Creek edged past Hertford 2-1.
The Seahawks played the final game of the day against Mattamuskeet in the losers’ bracket and won 5-1.
The tourney will resume Monday with Northside battling East Carteret at 10 p.m.