Northside Easter Baseball Tournament: Pungo coach has rare experience, Panthers learn from mistakes

Published 6:02 am Friday, April 25, 2025

By Jason O. Boyd

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YEATESVILLE, N.C. — Northside’s two-day Easter baseball tournament was a mix of great games and lessons learned by all four teams that participated.

Northside welcomed Pungo Christian, Lawrence Academy and TEACH School to play in three games over last Friday and Saturday.

Former Northside star returns with PCA

Pungo Christian baseball coach Chad Alligood brought his Raiders to Northside High School for the two-day tournament.

Although the two schools are separated by about 15 miles, they don’t play baseball against each other. That changed as Alligood’s squad came in and won a 5-0 decision against Northside.

Alligood is a 1994 graduate and was on the school’s baseball team that won the Class 2A state title. So to say it’s been a long time since he’s been back in this nature is saying a lot.

“It was nice,” Alligood said about the return. “It was nice to be able to put a competitive product out. A lot of the Northside kids I’ve coached or I’ve known through rec and stuff like that.”

“But it was nice to be able to play well and be here. It’s kind of like a second home for us now, so. A lot of the kids have played here before, so it was nice, too.”

Pungo got all of its runs in the sixth inning after a pitcher’s duel left the game tied at 0-0. McKinney Waters and Carr Eagles each had two hits in the win.

The outcome was different Friday night. Pungo ended up facing Lawrence Academy, which escaped with a 6-5 win over TEACH earlier in the day. The Raiders dropped a 10-3 decision after rallying from an early deficit to get to within 4-3. Ryan Bowie (single), Byrd (double) and Eagles error) each scored in the third.

“We’ve had, until maybe tonight, the last couple games, we haven’t had any errors,” Alligood said. “So I think that helped a lot, and the bats have been productive until this evening. I mean, we’ve averaged probably about nine runs a game the last handful of games.

“So tonight was just one of those nights. It’s just an off night, so we’ll get back at them. We’ll probably have another crack or two at them before this is all said and done.”

Panthers bounce back with win

Northside bounced back from the loss to Pungo with a 4-2 win over TEACH School. It was the most runs the team had scored a 9-4 win over Pamlico County, a stretch of five games. The Panthers got two runs in the second inning after trailing 1-0 on smart play on a passed by by the Trailblazers.

After Teach closed the deficit to 3-2, Holden Boykin walked, stole second and third and scored on a fielder’s choice to stretch the lead back to two runs.

“You just got to be ready to play,” Northside coach Parker Boyd said. “It’s the same thing that got us against Jones Senior (in a 6-1 loss to April 10). And I thought this past game, we came out and our approach to the plate was a lot better.

“I thought our field play was a lot better. It’s just an all-around better game, because I think we were ready to play. And when we come out ready to play, we’re a good baseball team. But us being so young, sometimes we can look like a bad baseball team if we’re not ready to play.”

How they fared

Lawrence Academy won all three of its games, beating TEACH School, Pungo Christian and Northside. Northside went 1-2, beating TEACH while Pungo went 1-2 with a win over Northside. TEACH beat Pungo on Saturday.

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