Beaufort County Senior Babe Ruth squad one win away from final
Published 12:04 pm Wednesday, July 11, 2018
GREENVILLE — The Beaufort County Senior Babe Ruth baseball team breezed to a 6-0 victory over South West Edgecombe on Monday night in its first game of the postseason tournament, pushing the Pirates’ winning streak to 10 games and booking a spot in the semifinals.
Beaufort County, which is made up of mostly freshly graduated players from Washington, Northside and Southside, along with a couple of rising seniors, wasted little time in taking the lead in Monday’s matchup. The Pirates collected four of its nine total hits in the game’s opening inning in the process of building a 4-0 lead.
Brantley Cutler and Chris Sulc jumpstarted the Pirates’ offense in the first, hitting back-to-back singles. Drew Ferguson followed by driving Cutler home to open the game’s scoring. Consecutive base hits from Will Warren and Cooper Anderson followed by a sacrifice fly by Tanner Alligood enabled Sulc, Ferguson and Warren to cross home plate, giving Beaufort County a commanding 4-0 lead.
That initial lead is all the Pirates would need on the night, as starting pitcher Zach Woolard was in fine form. The former Northside Panther pitched a complete-game shutout, allowing only four hits and issuing two walks. He struck out 11 of the 26 South West Edgecombe batters he faced, including for the game’s final out when South West Edgecombe had a runner on third.
Even though Beaufort County ended up not needing to score more, the Pirates tacked on some insurance runs in the bottom of the second. Former Pam Pack standout Frederick Holscher blasted a home run to increase his team’s lead to five runs. Later in the second, Sulc ripped a double to center field and was driven home when Ferguson followed with a double of his own.
The Pirates’ bats cooled off after the game’s first two innings, recording two base hits the rest of the way. But that was all they needed.
Sulc was a standout at the plate Beaufort County, going 3-for-3 at the plate and scoring two runs. Warren was the other Pirate with a multi-hit game on Monday, collecting two hits and scoring a run. Ferguson had a game-high two RBI, while Holscher, Anderson and Alligood each chipped in with an RBI apiece.
Monday night’s victory advanced Beaufort County to the semifinals of the postseason. The Pirates will face UNX, a team made up of J. H. Rose players that Beaufort County defeated by a score of 3-1 earlier in the season.