CHOCOWINITY —  South Creek entered Tuesday’s matchup with Four Rivers Conference rival Southside with a perfect record, but it was the Seahawks near flawless play that allowed them hand the Cougars their first loss of the year as they topped them 2-0.

With the loss, South Creek’s record drops to 9-1 (4-1) and puts the school in a tie for second place in the conference with the Seahawks (9-1, 4-1). Both teams are a game behind Riverside (3-0 in the conference), who will play at Southside Friday.

Southside’s sophomore ace Savannah Mumford pitched a tremendous game as she struck out 11 batters in seven innings, while allowing only two hits and walking none.

Mumford’s counterpart, freshman Sara Mosely, pitched nearly as well as she struck out three batters and allowed only four hits.

For Southside coach John Lohman and his Seahawks, the win was a big one.

“(South Creek) is a very good team top to bottom. They got pitching, hitting and defense,” Lohman said. “But I got to say Savannah did an excellent job tonight. She held their top three batters to one hit.”

Six of Mumford’s 11 Ks came from the Cougars No. 1 through No. 3 hitters.

After three-and-a-half scoreless innings, the Seahawks were able to get on the scoreboard when they pieced together some timely hitting to take advantage of a few South Creek miscues.

After Marlin Edwards led off the bottom of the fourth by popping out to second, Sondra Sparks reached base when her infield pop fly was mishandled by the Cougars.

Looking to advance Sparks, Bailey Hobbs came to bat and laid down a perfect bunt down the third base side of the infield. Hobbs legged out the throw to first, and Sparks was able to reach third on a South Creek error.

With runners on the corners, Macy Paramore drilled a grounder back to Mosely who failed to check the runner at third base before throwing to first, which allowed Edwards to cross home plate uncontested to give the Seahawks a 1-0 advantage.

Southside extended it’s lead when Smith knocked an RBI single to right field to score Hobbs. The inning ended when Smith was gunned down trying to stretch her single into a double. However, the damage was already done.

“The fourth inning was tough on us,” South Creek coach Danny Webb said. “Playing against a good team you can’t afford to have a bad inning like that. Southside didn’t have a bad inning, that was the difference in the ball game.”

Overall, the Cougars finished the game with three errors, while Southside’s sturdy defense only committed one.

“We had good team defense,” Lohman said.

Webb said that his team must move on from the loss as quickly as possible and prepare for the team’s next game on the road against Northside Friday.

“I just told the ladies it’s the first loss of the year but it’s not the end of the world,” Webb said. “If we can go on another 9-0 run we will be sitting pretty good.”

South Creek 000 000 0 č 0 2 3

Southside 000 200 X č 2 4 1

WP: Savannah Mumford; LP: Sara Mosely

Hitting: SC č Taylor Johnson 1-3, Kaitlyn Sitterson 1-2; SS č Bailey Hobbs 1-2, Marlin Edwards 1-3, M. Smith 1-3 (RBI), Katie Laughinghouse 1-3.