WASHINGTON — The Whitfield 8U All-Star team from Grimesland entered the final game of the Little Tarheel District 7 Tournament as the team to beat, while the Dare County All-Stars came out of the loser bracket finals needing to win two games to take the championship.

In the first game, Dare County came out swinging, racking up 10 hits along with 5 Whitfield errors. Dare County took the first game 9-3 to force a winner-take-all final.

Leading hitters for Whitfield in the first game were Riley Williams with two hits, while Jacob Scott, Johnny Southern, Josh Lewis and Bradley Turner had one a piece.

The second and deciding game for the District 7 8U Championship proved to be a defensive battle through the first 3 innings.

Neither team got a runner past 2nd base until Whitfield broke the game open in the top of the fourth, scoring 5 runs on 6 hits. Garrett Anderson opened the inning with a single, but the next two batters followed with back-to-back infield pop outs. The Whitfield All-Stars reeled off five straight hits. Jacob Scott singled to move Anderson to third, Johnny Southern singled up the middle to score Anderson abd Kaden Kaney followed with a single to right to score Scott.

Nick Yelverton singled down the third base line, scoring Southern. Tanner Oakley had an infield hit scoring both Kaney and Yelverton.

Dare County rallied by putting up four runs in the bottom of the fourth on six hits with help from Whitfield, who committed three errors. Dare County scored two more runs in the bottom of the fifth to go ahead 6-5.

In the top of the sixth down by one run, Whitfield put up five runs on five hits and two costly errors by Dare County. After one out in the sixth, Riley Williams got a single to start things off. An error at third put runners on first and second base. Johnny Southern’s RBI Single up the middle scored Williams to tie the game and an error by the third baseman moved the runners to second and third.

An infield hit by Kaden Kaney scored Scott, Southern scored on Yelverton’s force out at first and Tanner Oakley reached first on an error by Dare County’s shortstop.  Kaney and Oakley scored on Cooper Smith’s double to Centerfield.

Whitfield’s tough defense shut down Dare County in the bottom of the sixth recording three-straight outs for a 10-6 Whitfield victory and the Little Tarheel 8U District 7 Championship. Whitfield will compete in the state playoffs in Smithfield on July 24.