Wednesday was an unfortunate outing for Northside. The Panthers had not too long ago scored 20 runs in a win over Pamlico County, but lost road games at Bear Grass and Washington by a combined score of 19-1.

Their loss at Washington highlighted the team’s lack of consistency. Only four players reached base in the five frames played before the mercy rule called for an early end. Mistakes had a way of snowballing on both offense and defense.

“It’s kind of what’s been going on all year long,” Northside coach Keith Boyd said. “We’ll go out and play one game and we’ll show signs of being a pretty good baseball team — young, but pretty good. Then we’ll go two or three and we might have a good pitching performance or we might kick it around six or eight times in the field.

“We may have a great fielding performance, but we walk 12, as was the case (Wednesday). We’ve been doing this since December. … It’s halfway through the season. It’s time for these guys to step up if they want to be pretty good.”

Pitching was one of the team’s weakest areas in the loss. Sophomore Parker Boyd started on the mound. With two outs and Pam Pack runners on second and third, Boyd issued three consecutive walks, which handed over a pair of runs to the hosts. With the bases still loaded, senior Chase Sauls took over pitching duties from there. He induced a fly out to left center to escape the inning and strand three Washington runners.

But it wasn’t long before he was chased, too. He allowed both Washington leadoff batters to reach in the second before conceding a one-out RBI single to centerfield. Washington made it 4-0 when Matt Black scored on a passed ball.

Sauls got ahead with two quick strikes on Neill Jennings, but threw four straight balls to walk him and load the bases, still with one out. That prompted another change with senior lefty Zach Woolard now taking over on the mound.

At this point in the season, with this weekend’s Easter tournament roughly marking the halfway point, Northside’s youth isn’t an excuse for inconsistency.

“It’s hard to chalk up the mound to youth when you throw a sophomore up there and he doesn’t do too well, then you throw two seniors behind him and they do the same thing,” Boyd said. “You can’t blame it on youth anymore. … It’s time to stop making excuses for them and time to start being baseball players.”

The rest of the Panther defense struggled mightily, too. There were plenty of fielding errors, especially at third base.

Northside’s offense scored a run in the top of the fifth — which proved to be the final frame — to avoid getting shutout for a second game in a row. Washington pitcher Tripp Barfield walked James Barrow. He quickly made his way into scoring position on a passed ball and then a wild pitch before scoring on another passed ball. All were rare slip ups by the duo of Barfield and catcher Cooper Anderson.

The Panthers struggled at the plate in the first four innings. Strikeouts were contagious and batters got under the ball, making for some routine play on fly balls.

Northside hosts the aforementioned Easter tournament, which will also feature the likes of the Pam Pack and Southside. One would hope it’s an opportunity to get some work in on their home field, but there’s really no telling.

“I can’t predict what’s going to happen,” Boyd said. “By the time I think we’re doing pretty well, we’ll show signs of not ever seeing a baseball before. Right now, until I see some signs of consistency … As a coach, I don’t even know what I’m going to get.”