CHOCOWINITY — Down 6-3 in the bottom of the seventh on Tuesday, the Southside baseball team pieced together a two-out rally to narrow the Bear Grass lead to two runs and load the bases, but the Seahawks, once again, were without that singular clutch hit, one that has been missing from nearly every defeat this season.

“I told the before the inning started that I wanted to see what kind of fight they had,” said head coach Kevin McRoy. “I was proud of the way they fought back in the seventh with two out — to string together a couple of hits and get some runners on. Our hits still are not finding the holes. We’re putting the bat on the ball, but we’re hitting it right to them. We need to keep doing what we’re doing and those hits will find the holes sooner or later.”

Sophomore Paul Radford went the distance, allowing eight hits and three earned runs, while striking out three. The story for Southside, however, was fielding. The Seahawks failed to support their starter, committing a season-high six errors in a losing effort, blunders that were ultimately the difference down the stretch.

Sophomore catcher Hunter Sparks and senior Will Mumford finished with two hits apiece. Base knocks from Lawrence Brown, Josh Crance, Sparks and Dylan Lewis scored Southside’s the four runs.

“We talk about coming out every day and getting better,” McRoy said. “We’ll start catching some breaks. It’s a replay of last year. The first half of the year we couldn’t get a timely hit and the second half of the year we turned it around. The games we’re in, we’re battling and they’re hard fought games. The kids are learning a lot from those. We’re pretty young, so it’s a learning experience for us. “

With the loss, the Seahawks drops to 3-5 (1-3 Coastal Plains) before their matchup with rival Northside, set for today at 6 p.m. in Chocowinity.