CHOCOWINITY — The start of Southside’s 1-A Coastal Plains Conference was anything but easy. It kicked off last week with road games at Bear Grass and Jones Senior. The Seahawks dropped both contests — their first two losses of the young season — by a combined score of 21-7.

They fell behind early against Bear Grass by surrendering eight runs in the first inning. Southside got in its own way throughout the game by committing half a dozen errors.

Such was the case at Jones Senior, too. The Seahawks committed five errors and left nine runners on base against the Trojans. However, they also proved something to themselves late in that game. Trailing 9-1 entering the sixth, Southside notched five runs in two innings.

Coach Kevin McRoy believes that momentum carried over to Tuesday’s 9-2 win over Lejeune.

“It started with our last game against Jones Senior,” he said. “We put ourselves in a hole early on in that game, but in the sixth inning, we started playing ball like we’re capable of. I felt like the last two innings in that game, we played good ball. I think it carried over. I hope we’re playing the type of baseball we’re capable of and that we can continue it into our next few games.”

It didn’t carry over right away, though. The Devil Pups got a leadoff single and an error at third base allowed the next batter to reach, setting up a two-RBI shot to centerfield later on.

Those kinds of errors were few and far between, at least relative to Southside’s two games prior. The home club committed three errors in the win. Most were harmless in the grand scheme of things.

Even considering the errors, the Seahawks played a rather crisp game in the field. They got better as the game went on, likely relaxing a bit after they took the lead in the second inning.

“You play solid defense, you’re going to give yourself an opportunity to win,” McRoy said. “If you don’t you put yourselves in holes early on.”

The defensive effort was capped off by a game-ending double play. Dakota Modlin made a great play on a line shot to left field and was able to make the throw to second base to catch a Devil Pup runner before he could tag up.

The defensive effort starts on the mound. Paul Radford threw three innings in Southside’s loss to Bear Grass last week. In that span, he was hit eight times for a dozen runs — seven of which weren’t charged to him.

He settled in after Lejeune’s two-run first inning, pitching six shutout frames en route to the win.

“I’m very pleased with the way he settled in,” McRoy said. “The first inning, he came out a little nervous. He struggled in his last outing and I think that carried over a little bit. … He didn’t throw bad (against Bear Grass), but we had one bad inning that put us in a hole and I think that carried over to (Tuesday).

“It was still in the back of his mind. Once he settled down and settled in, he did really well. I tell him all the time the most important pitch he’s going to throw is the next one. I just keep reiterating that to him. … He pitched more pitches than I would have liked him to throw, but at least I’ve got everybody now for Thursday and Saturday.”

Southside still has room to improve when it comes to errors not just on the defensive end, but also on offense. The Seahawks stranded plenty of runners against Lejeune, including leaving the bases loaded thrice.

The silver lining is that Thursday’s non-conference game at South Creek and this weekend’s Northside Easter Tournament give them plenty of in-game opportunities to sort things out.