CHOCOWINITY — Southside baseball coach Kevin McRoy told his team that they have the potential and ability to be a top team in the 1-A Coastal Plains.

There are seven seniors on the roster. There’s a Division I commit. Still, the Seahawks are 0-3 to start the year after Wednesday’s 12-2 loss to Tarboro in its CPC opener. The Vikings had their bats going out of the gate, but Southside also couldn’t get out of its own way.

McRoy is now looking for leaders.

“Right now, I don’t have a leader. Plain and simple. I have seven seniors on this team, and I really do not feel like I have a leader,” he said. “I need one of them just to step up. It’s frustrating.”

It’s not an easy mission. McRoy has already talked to them. Perhaps it comes down to a players meeting. The Seahawks’ skipper said there are veterans on the team capable of such responsibility. The lack of focus that has plagued the team early on has hindered leadership manifesting itself.

The season may be young, but Southside is already running out of time. The loss Wednesday put the Seahawks behind the eight ball in the CPC. They’ll be back in action at league foe Pamlico County Friday, and have two more CPC games on deck next week.

They can’t afford to give up too much ground early on.

“Now that we’re into conference, there’s definitely a sense of urgency,” McRoy said. “It’s so frustrating because we have the talent and we have the potential. We’re not playing up to our ability. Every game is important from here on out.”

McRoy also said the struggles boiled down to a lack of confidence. Whatever confidence they did have on Wednesday quickly evaporated. Caleb Whitley led off the game with a base hit, then came in on Lee Thorne’s hit through the right side.

With two outs, the Vikings capitalized on an error in the outfield to post four runs in the first frame.

“Give Tarboro credit. They came out swinging. They put the bat on the ball,” McRoy said. “We did not help ourselves at all. When the wheels came off, they came off. It snowballed.”

Southside sent the minimum of nine batters to the plate in the first three innings. Tarboro built a 12-0 lead in the meantime. The Seahawks used three pitchers in the first three stanzas.

They got something going in the bottom of the fourth when Cody Modlin led off with a single through the left side. Demetrius Ebron put the ball in play in the next at-bat, and an ensuing error put him and Modlin in scoring position with none away.

Brantley Cutler and Will Warren had consecutive RBI groundouts to put two on the board, trimming the deficit to 12-2.

That was all the Seahawks would get. They finish the week at Pamlico County Friday. There are three games on the slate next week. A visit with Columbia precedes meetings with Jones Senior and Riverside.