Rival sweep: Northside softball tops Southside in back-to-back games

Published 6:35 pm Monday, March 24, 2025

By Jason O. Boyd

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YEATESVILLE, N.C. — Whatever it was that Northside softball coach Keith Boyd worked on with his team after last week certainly seems to be working.

The Panthers picked up two victories over Southside this week in Coastal Plains Conference play. Northside won 17-11 at Southside on Tuesday then picked up a 15-3 victory in five innings on Thursday. The Panthers also split a two-game road trip at Richmond County (won, 22-7; lost 9-8) and goes into the week 6-3 overall, 2-0 in the CPC. The Seahawks are now 4-3, 0-2 going into next week.

“Well, we scored runs both nights, but what was so much better tonight was we threw strikes,” Boyd said after Thursday’s win. “Tuesday night we had 14 walks. I think today we had four.

“And if we continue to hit the ball like that, we’re not gonna be overpowering anything, but if we can make you earn it and not walk some errors, then we can be in a few ballgames, but that was the difference. And tonight we did hit it on a button a lot more than we did Tuesday night. So we had a great practice (Wednesday) and did a lot of hitting.

“I mean, we just took a lot of time to work on things that we needed to work on individually to get yourselves better. And it showed up tonight. (8:03) It was a lot better than Tuesday night.”

The Panthers were 10-run ruled on March 12 in a 14-3 loss to Bear Grass Charter in what could be a potential stat playoff preview. Northside didn’t play again until Tuesday at Southside.

Northside had 14 hits and scored in every inning but the final two on Tuesday. On Thursday, the Panthers scored in every inning until Southside was 10-run ruled after the top of the fifth. Riley Hudson came up big in both games, going 3-for-5 with four runs and two RBI on Tuesday and 3-for-4 with three runs and four RBIs, three on a home run in the third inning.

The Panthers had 15 hits on Thursday, something Southside coach Kam Rouse said just made matters worse with his club dealing with sickness and injuries. The two losses were a setback for a Seahawks team that had scored runs in bunches itself leading up to this week.

“Not to try and make excuses, but I’ve got three girls that are fighting the cold,” Rouse said. “Two of them, their shoulders and stuff are hurting. And of course, we ain’t got no backup, whatever.

“But like I told them, we’ve still got to play the game. But it is what it is. It’s part of it, but the other part is we just aren’t making the plays that we should be making.”

Southside did mount a rally in Tuesday’s game, scoring four runs in the final three innings. On Thursday, Northside freshman pitcher Allie Davis was in better control on the mound, giving up two runs, one earned, on one hit with five strikeouts and four walks.

The Panthers wasted no time rallying after Southside got a run in the top of the first inning when Lily McLean singled and later scored. Northside had four hits, three of which drove in runs, for a 5-1 lead.

After Valerie Gonzalez was hit by a pitch and scored in the second for Southside, the Panthers came right back with four more runs for a 9-2 lead. Northside’s EllaKate Hanna singled and Megan Hopkins (single) drove her in before Hudson’s double, Kinsey White’s RBI single and Makenly Whaley’s sacrifice.

“Tonight it was more grace and effort to hit the ball and put it in places that it wasn’t, even got a home run out of it and such,” Boyd said. “I mean, so a little bit of a different dichotomy for both, but obviously a good result for both ends.

“That home run was, that’s 15-mile an hour wind blowing straight in. That ball was out of here by eight or ten feet. So (Hudson) got a hold of that one, but yeah, but we all, and even our outs, I mean, (McLean, Southside’s shortstop) had three or four great plays, just line drives hit right at her, but I was pleased with our hit.

“That was … full team effort was great tonight.”

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