JAMESVILLE — North Beaufort’s 12U team bounced back in a big way from its loss to Jamesville earlier on Saturday. The all stars were one out away from a perfect game when a walk broke it. The astounding defensive effort resulted in a 6-0 win and punched their ticket for the next round nonetheless.

Starting pitcher Jacob Whitsell tossed an inning in North Beaufort’s earlier game on Saturday. Per Little Tar Heel tournament rules, he was limited to a combined six frames in one day.

Whitsell rolled through the five of the game’s six stanzas. He struck out nine South Edgecombe batters, including all three he faced in the top of the fifth — his last inning before being forced out. The defense behind him was perfect in retiring the other six batters that stepped up to the plate in that span.

“It was very, very good to see the team come together,” coach Anthony Keech said. “Every team is due a bad game and we had one (Saturday) morning. They regrouped, we got together and had our little pep talk. We come back to play in Beaufort County baseball.

“(Whitsell) was our key. We build our team and we build our defense around our pitching. We’ve got one of the finest pitching staffs there is. That was really our No. 2 guy. You haven’t seen our No. 1 yet.”

Hayes Pippen took the mound in the sixth with a comfortable 6-0 lead. He induced a groundout to second base and a fly out to centerfield. He ended up issuing a walk to the next batter — the only South Edgecombe player to reach base — before striking out the next one to seal the win.

While they ended up scoring six, runs were hard to come across early on for North Beaufort. The boys first broke through with a run in the bottom of the second. Ryan Cornelius led off the frame with a single back up the middle that knocked over the opposing pitcher as he tried to dodge it. He was erased on a fielder’s choice off the bat of Gavin Rayburn, who later came across on Pippin’s sacrifice bunt RBI.

They added five more runs between the fourth and fifth innings to pull away. Keifer Boyd batted in Messiah Levy with a double down the left-field line. Boyd then stole third base so he could easily score on Eli Huynh’s single through the left side. He stole second and third, but was left on.

North Beaufort forced a pitching change in a three-run fifth inning. With the bottom of the order due up, Brian Gutierrez hit a one-out single up the middle. He promptly stole second and third before scoring on an error. Whitsell drew a walk and was later pushed across by Boyd’s RBI base hit. Huynh plated the third run — and North Beaufort’s final of the game — with a fly out that scored Levy.