PINETOWN — Southside’s offense exploded for eight runs in the sixth inning. It helped lift the Seahawks to a 11-7 win over South Creek in Monday’s finale of the Northside Easter Tournament. With the victory, they wrapped up the tournament with a 2-1 record.

Trailing 4-3 late in the game, Dahlton O’Neal doubled to left field and stole third base shortly thereafter. Dakota Modlin drew a walk and Lawrence Brown was intentionally put on base. The Cougars, with only one out, were looking to put themselves in a force-out scenario, but it backfired.

Demitrius Ebron knocked a base hit right through the pitcher’s legs to plate O’Neal for the tying run. Will Warren followed suit with a shot to centerfield and reached on an error that also allowed Brown and Modlin to score.

The game-winning hit came off of Josh Crance’s bat. He drilled the ball over South Creek’s second baseman to push across Ebron and Warren, producing an 8-4 lead.

Southside went on to churn out three more runs — one on a sac-fly RBI by Paul Radford and two via walks.

“It’s important. Going back to our last game, we left too many guys on and early in this game we were leaving too many guys on,” Seahawks coach Kevin McRoy said of scoring runs whenever given the chance. Southside’s eight-run sixth came off of just three hits and an error.

“Anytime you get them in scoring position, you want to get them in. You try to do anything you can to get them in. … It’s always nice to get runs across when they’re in scoring position.”

The Seahawks, with an eight-run cushion, had three outs separating them from the win. The Cougars tagged them for three runs — two of which came off an error at third — in the top of the seventh, but they held on for the win.

Southside opened the evening’s scoring with three runs in the bottom of the second. Crance led off with a double down the right-field line and advanced to third on a passed ball. After Terry Moore drew a walk, Crance came in on Radford’s single up the middle. Moore and Radford moved into scoring position on the throw home.

Moore scored easily on a passed ball and Radford followed him in after O’Neal grounded out to shortstop.

South Creek, trailing 3-0 entering the fifth after a few quiet frames, loaded the bases with no outs to help grind out four runs.

Southside conceded seven runs between the fifth and seventh innings, but its defense held up through the rest of the game. The Cougars sent four or less batters to the plate in four of the game’s seven innings. Moore, who started on the mound, largely kept them at bay. Radford took over in the sixth to help the Seahawks hold on for the win.

“Terry started out good and was pounding the strike zone all night,” McRoy said. “I think he got a little tired in the fourth and fifth innings and started struggling a bit. I didn’t want to go to Paul, but he didn’t throw many pitches (Friday). Paul’s a gamer. He’s going to show up ready to go whenever I need him.”