PINETOWN — When two county rivals are fighting to extend their seasons, each hoping to receive an at-large playoff bid, no lead is ever safe.

Like two caged tigers, Northside and Southside, both sitting in the basement of the Coastal Plains Conference, met in Pinetown on Thursday to settle a score and, potentially, make the other’s road to the playoffs more difficult, if not impossible.

And as most games between these two schools play out, regardless of the sport, the season finale held true to the timeless narrative. In a contest that featured 27 hits and 28 runs, Southside’s six-run seventh inning was the final gab in a no-holds-barred, 16-12 slugfest over Northside.

“A lot of the runs tonight were given by us and by them, but it was a lot of fun,” said Southside head coach Kevin McRoy, referring to both team’s lackluster defensive play throughout the game. “It was good to come back, especially after how we played last time. We didn’t play well at all. We’ve had a bad taste in our mouths since then because we know we’re a better team then we put out there last time. They came out and played well today.”

In an April 2 matchup between the rivals in Chocowinity, it was Northside that capitalized on 10 Southside errors en route to a 13-2 win. This time, the Seahawks and Panthers committed a combined 10 errors, but it was the visitors who managed to get timely hits with runners in scoring position.

Sticking to the same game plan that drove the team to a 3-1 record in the last four games, Northside head coach Keith Boyd mixed and matched pitchers, using all but one of his available arms. Starter Chase Sauls, Zach Woolard (jr.), Adam Cahoon and Zack Woolard (fr.) all saw time on the hill, while McRoy had a much different approach.

Paul Radford, despite giving up 12 runs (seven earned), pitched a complete game for the Seahawks, adjusting as the game went along, mixing speeds and staying mentally poised. The sophomore right-hander finished with four strikeouts, trusting his defense to make the plays behind him.

“It was exhausting,” Radford said. “As coach always tells me, the next pitch is the most important pitch, so I was just keeping that in my mind the whole game. Having everyone behind me supporting me made me feel really good.”

When asked why he kept his starter in the game, McRoy reiterated that philosophy.

“You can’t change what happened in the past,” he said. “I kept telling Paul to stay relaxed. Early on in the game, he would get runners on, and I felt like he was nibbling around the strike zone. I told him to go after them and put the ball in play.”

Through the first three innings, taking past games into consideration, both teams tried everything to manufacture runs and get ahead. Will Mumford and Lawrence Brown singled to start the game, Brown using his running back speed to beat out a bunt. Mumford later scored on a sac fly from Hunter Sparks and after a Josh Crance double in the second, Southside took a 2-0 lead. But Northside had an answer, scoring two in the bottom half of the frame on hits from Jensen Hawkins and Parker Boyd.

In the fourth inning, Marshall Medlock took advantage of two costly errors at third base, driving in Crance and Phil Smith on a double to the wall in left-center. The Seahawks went on to score another two runs in the top of the fifth, jumping out to a 7-2 lead.

However, Northside’s lineup unloaded for seven runs in the bottom of the fifth. Caleb Alligood, Hawkins, Zack Woolard (jr.), Nick Crisp and Jacob Boyd all singled in the inning off Radford, who allowed six-straight base runners at one point.

“They’ve had their ups and downs all year long,” McRoy said. “We’ve had one inning in every game that would always do us in, but they stayed true to the course all season, stayed positive and into the game. They never gave up and fought the entire game and that’s all that I ask for. There were a number of times where they could of hung their head, but they didn’t.”

Northside leading 9-7, Southside struck back in the sixth after a two-RBI single from Brown and an RBI single from Sparks. But again, the Panthers tied the game in the sixth after Radford hit Zack Woolard (jr.) with the bases loaded.

Finally, in the top of the seventh, a six-run frame from Southside — powered by hits from Brown, Dylan Lewis, Crance, Chase Nobles, Medlock and Dalton O’Neal — proved too much to overcome, as the host only managed two runs in the bottom half of the sixth, leaving the bases loaded and the tying run at the plate.

“Today, for the first time all year, we were getting those hits with runners in scoring position and not leaving them stranded,” McRoy said. “We got some key, timely hits throughout the game and that allowed us to score some runs. And like us, they booted the ball a couple of times and that allowed us to score some runs as well.”

For the visitors, Brown finished the day 4-for-5 with two RBIs, while Sparks, Crance, Nobles, Medlock and O’Neal notched two hits apiece. Hawkins and Crisp led Northside with two hits each. Radford picked up the extraordinarily hard earned win.

With the victory, Southside closes out the regular season 7-10, finishing tied with Northside for fifth place in the Coastal Plains with a 4-8-conference record. The loss drops the Panthers to 7-15, giving the Seahawks a better chance at obtaining a playoff bid, due to their higher overall win percentage.