The ENC Babe Ruth state softball tournament features plenty of talented teams and the East Beaufort 10U All-Stars ran into a tough one in their opener as they fell 12-0 in four innings to a strong Pitt County All-Stars team on Tuesday at the Susiegray McConnell Complex.
Pitt County pitcher Gracen Terrell was lights out on Tuesday as she held the East Beaufort All-Stars scoreless during her three innings of work to hand East Beaufort its first pool play defeat.
“We definitely got to see some good pitching today,” East Beaufort coach Butch Chase said. “We’re going to have to see pitching like that to get better so that was the main thing we took out of today.”
Morgan Respess had East Beaufort’s lone hit, but the team was able to get runners on base throughout the game. However, some base running miscues quickly dampened their kindling fire.
“We had one hit but we had some positives,” Chase said. “We played some small ball and moved some runners around but we had a few base running mistakes, but we’re young and we’re going to improve.”
Playing against teams like Pitt County and other quality opponents Chase said it is key to minimize team mistakes, which is something they will look to do as the tourney continues.
“Well, we have to be aggressive on the base paths but we have to keep our heads in the game,” Chase said. “We just can’t make those mental mistakes. We have to be solid.”
Kathleen Slade got the start for East Beaufort and Chase said he was pleased with her effort.
“Kathleen was real solid. She was accurate and she’s got a little bit of heat,” Chase said.
Chase said that while he would like to see his defense sharpen up a little bit, East Beaufort made several quality plays.
“We made a couple of good catches in the field,” Chase said. “Taylor (Chase) made a couple of nice catches at second base and we made a few nice catches during the day.”

East Beaufort    000    0    —    0
Pitt County 651    X —        0
WP: Gracen Terrell; LP: Kathleen Slade
Hitting: EB — Morgan Respess 1-3.