Shifts in scheduling: Beaufort County baseball, softball teams play their closest rivals twice, very early in season

Published 9:53 pm Friday, April 11, 2025

By Jason O. Boyd

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Imagine Duke and North Carolina squaring off in a big men’s college basketball game.

Then imagine them doing it again just two days later.

It sounds odd, which is why you don’t see that kind of scheduling going on in most college, high school or pro sports. But that doesn’t apply to college baseball and softball. Recently, that’s also applied at the high school level.

College baseball and softball play a scheduling series, meaning they carry out a three-game set, usually either home or away, and typically with conference foes. There are not a lot of cases where they will play both home and away in a season, but it happens.

When it does, it’s usually spaced far apart during the regular season. It’s also more prone for non-conference teams. So, for example, East Carolina’s baseball team could play UNC Wilmington home and away in two weeks but not likely do the same against Charlotte because there are already a lot of teams in the American Athletic Conference.

High schools here and around the state have been using the scheduling series for some years now. Washington baseball coach Will Tyson has been at the school for five years and said it’s been going on at least that long. However, he said the new conference the Pam Pack will be in starting this fall could deviate away from that scheduling.

The Beaufort County softball coaches — Keith Boyd at Northside, Kam Rouse at Southside and Brad Horton at Washington — have mixed opinions about the format. The county’s baseball coaches — Tyson, Parker Boyd at Northside and John Lohman at Southside tend to like the format better because you stand less of a chance of facing the opposing team’s top pitcher twice in the season.

Fans seem to still be adjusting to the format. It does seem odd to think that a Northside and Southside game won’t be played again this season and that Washington and West Craven won’t tangle again for bragging rights and conference positioning.

We asked the coaches what they thought about the format. Here’s some of what they had to say.

John Lohman, Southside baseball coach

“Yeah, I think I would prefer not to have back-to-back, but sometimes the schedule goes that way. I mean, I think it creates a fair situation where both teams have to pitch. They can have a chance to pitch their number one, but then you have to pitch your number two guy after that.

“So I think it’s a little more fair that way, pitching-wise, because if you spread it out, you might only see their number one guy, depending on the schedule roles or vice versa. And softball’s not that, you can pitch the same person.”

Brad Horton, Washington softball coach

“Truthfully, it’s actually not good for softball, because you got a team that you’re playing twice a week. By the time you play it like West Craven, for example, we played them Tuesday. The score was 16-3.

“You think they want to come out here Friday and turn around and do it again without playing anybody else and trying to get practice in? And that’s the bad part. And this is the only sport that does it.

“Volleyball doesn’t do it, basketball doesn’t do it, football, nobody else does this except us, except softball and baseball. And truthfully, they should get, we’ve lobbied to have and asked several times not to do it for softball, because you only got one pitcher. Most teams have two or three pitchers, but you got one main pitcher.

“There’s no limits on that person pitching. So why not change it so the teams have the opportunity? So it’s gonna be rough, but it’s just part of it.”

Parker Boyd, Northside baseball coach

“Well, that’s our conference thing. So you play the same team every week. It’s a little … I don’t really like it, but I don’t get to make the schedule.

“Two big wins (against Southside), obviously to start the conference play.”

Will Tyson, Washington baseball coach

“I’m a series fan myself just because it allows you to see a team together one week. You get their best one game, and then you get their number two the next game. So it’s not like I can face their number one, cycle back through, and then maybe have to face their number one again if it rotates that way with the pitching and everything.

“It challenges you from a pitching standpoint to staff a week instead of just one game. So you have to plan.”

Keith Boyd, Northside softball coach

“As a baseball coach, I love it. Softball, it doesn’t really matter, but from coaching baseball so many years, I do think it’s the best thing for baseball. Instead of rotating the schedule, you’re not getting everybody’s number one both times.

“You get to see everybody’s one, two, and three, where if it’s set up another way, and it worked just right for another team, you can get their best picture every time. Now it’s not like that, so for baseball, it’s great. Softball, it doesn’t mean much of a thing.”

More Sports

February Beaufort County Athletes of the Month

Breaking away: Beaufort County run events for rest of 2025

Terry Moore, Duke football halfway through spring workouts; accolades begin

High 5, Southside’s Austin Gerard: Seahawks’ senior captain talks pitching, hitting, being leader

Print Article

SportsPlus

  • Polls

    What is the status of your annual income taxes?

    View Results

    Loading ... Loading ...