CHOCOWINITY — A strong finish by the Southside baseball team wasn’t enough to overcome its slow start as the Seahawks fell 5-2 to fellow Four Rivers conference foe Manteo on Friday.
The Seahawks (5-2, 0-2) committed a total of five errors and fell behind 4-0 after two innings. From there, Southside played even with the Redskins (3-4, 1-1), but could not make up the lost ground.
“We struggled in the field at the start and had a couple of errors that really hurt us. We also had an error or two on the bases, which is definitely something we have to work on,” Southside coach Jeff Carrow said. “But, I was proud of the way the guys fought back today. By the third inning we were playing pretty good ball. We just have to learn how to start the game properly.”
Starting pitcher Blake Jones and the rest of the Southside defense avoided a disastrous first inning by allowing only one run despite committing two errors.
In the second inning Manteo’s Thomas Bliven’s RBI single brought home Leo Woodard, who reached base after being hit by a pitch. The Redskins would go on to add two more runs before Jones recorded the third out of the inning when Hunter Early flied out to left field.
With a 4-0 lead, Early, Manteo’s starting pitcher, pitched well as he scattered six hits over seven innings and struck out six batters.
Jones, who seemed to get stronger as the game went on, would also throw a complete game, and yielded 10 hits while fanning three batters.
After the second inning Jones would only allow one more run for the rest of the game but the damage was already done.
“I’m proud of how he fought back,” Carrow said. “It’s been a little while since he pitched, which is maybe why he struggled at the start.
“He had trouble locating his fastball but after the first two innings he got back with it and got faster.”
Southside was able to get on the scoreboard in the third inning when Alex Graves singled to drive in Will Mumford.
The Seahawks threatened in the bottom of the seventh and scored another run when a Manteo error allowed Daniel Woolard to score from third to make it a 5-2 ball game. With two runners on base, Southside had the tying run at the plate but their rally came to an end when Jones grounded out to third base.
The Seahawks will be back in action on Tuesday when they host Plymouth.

Manteo    130    100    0    –    5    10    1
Southside 001    000    1    –    2    6    5
WP: Hunter Early; LP: Blake Jones
Hitting: M — Thomas Bliven 1-3 (RBI), Frankie Bliven 2-4, Sam Horne 1-3 (RBI), Joel Midgett 2-4, Hunter Early 1-3, Leo Woodard 1-3 (RBI), Ryan Tyler 1-3, Tyler Pennington 1-3; S — Blake Jones 1-3, Alex Graves 1-3 (RBI), Terrill Moore 1-3, Hayden Bogart 1-2, Kyle White 1-3, Will Mumford 1-2.