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The Beaufort County Post 15 Junior American Legion baseball team earned the number two seed in the upcoming district tournament with a 4-1 victory over Bear Grass in the regular season finale Thursday night at Washington High School.

Post 15 was supposed to end the regular season Friday at home, but Hobgood didn’t have enough players and forfeited, so the local squad heads to the district tournament in Ahoskie on a seven-game winning streak and a 10-6 overall record. In the six wins on the field, Post 15 pitchers allowed just five runs.

Three Beaufort Co. pitchers combined on Thursday’s victory. Luke Bullock went the first two innings and allowed three hits and struck out three batters. Trenton Allen pitched the next three and gave up a hit and recorded two strikeouts. His Northside teammate, Ashton Willard fanned three and gave up another hit over the final two innings.

Washington got on the board first with a three-run inning in the third with Ashton Willard hitting a leadoff double before Jackson Harding hit an RBI single to drive him home. After a few walks and wild pitches Washington led 3-0 in the bottom of the third. Offensively Washington got six hits with Willard getting two (single and double) and Holden Boykin getting two (double and triple).

Head coach Bobby Boyd is ecstatic going into the District Tournament saying this speaks volumes about his team’s character. “A lot of teams at 3-6 would have folded, not these guys. They kept saying if we put the pieces together, we can be special… it’s special,” Boyd said. “If we can pitch like this and play defense like this, we are going to be tough to beat.”

The district tournament will begin on Sunday with Washington having a rematch against Bear Grass at 5:30 p.m. in Ahoskie. The winner will play at 7 p.m. on Monday. The top two teams from the district tournament will advance to the state tournament July 9-13 in Goldsboro.