The day started out with some heavy rain and there wasn’t much sunshine after that for the Chocowinity 16U All-Stars as they fell 18-0 to the East Beaufort All-Stars in their ENC Babe Ruth state tournament opener and then closed out the afternoon with an 11-0 loss to the Edenton/Chowan All-Stars.
“The first game against East Beaufort was kind of rough because we came out a little slow and obviously they were a little bit of a better prepared team and it showed,” said Chocowinity coach Kam Rouse. “The second game against Edenton/Chowan we came out a lot better. We played better defense.”
Chocowinity’s defense may have improved, but the team’s bats struggled over the course of two games. Against East Beaufort, Chocowinity’s Dajea Reddick hit a double, while Kimmy Ange and McKayla Aldridge each had a hit.
In the second game, Aldridge’s base hit was the only one the team would muster over the course of four innings.
“We made great contact, they just made some great plays,” Rouse said. “We had some solid hits but they always seemed to be right at somebody. They were just one or two steps away from getting on base.”
Destiny Pope pitched a majority of both games for Chocowinity and Rouse said she had her moments.
“I started her out against East Beaufort and she struggled a little bit,” Rouse said. “I started her again against Edenton/Chowan and she threw four good innings. She had one strike out and she did great. She started to find the strike zone but they just made some great hits and some great plays.”
Though the team struggled Rouse said there were several encouraging aspects on Tuesday.
“Some of the positives were that against East Beaufort by the end of the game we started making some contact with the ball and playing a little bit better defense,” Rouse said. “That carried over into the second game. When the girls settled down we started having a couple of innings where the defense started to pick up and we started getting the bat on the ball.”

Edenton/Chowan    511    4    —    11
Chocowinity    —    000    0    —    0
Hitting: C — McKayla Aldridge 1-2.