BEAUFORT — The Southside baseball team’s season came to an end on Thursday with an 11-1, four-inning loss to conference foe East Carteret in Round 1 of the NCHSAA state tournament.

Against the No. 6-seeded Mariners, sophomore starter Paul Radford picked up the loss, tossing three innings and allowing all 11 runs (seven earned) on eight hits and three walks. Freshman Dakota Modlin pitched a scoreless fourth inning for the Seahawks.

Senior Philip Smith, junior Dylan Lewis and senior Will Mumford were the only Southside players to record hits in the final game.

With the loss, Southside closes out the season 7-11 (4-8 Coastal Plains), while East Carteret (14-7, 12-0 CPC) advances to face No. 22-seeded West Columbus today.

 

WATKINS NAMED FINALIST FOR BENCH AWARD

WICHITA, Kansas (ECU) — East Carolina red-shirt sophomore Travis Watkins has been named one of 20 semifinalists for the 2015 Johnny Bench Award presented by BaseballSavings.com.

Watkins is one of eight underclassmen named on the list and he is the third Pirate in school history to be named a semifinalist joining Jake Smith (2006 winner) and Corey Kemp (2007-08 semifinalist).

The Concord native has caught 51 games behind the plate throwing out 17 of 42  (40.5 percent) would be base stealers, which ranks 15th nationally. At the plate he is batting .305 with two home runs, 31 RBI, 23 runs scored and shares the team lead with 15 multi-hit games.

In early January Watkins became the fifth catcher in program history to be named to the initial watch list following Smith, Kemp, Jared Avchen (2010) and Zach Wright (2010-12). He is the lone Pirate catcher to appear on the watch list three times (2013-15) and the third with multiple selections.