Tuesday marked the beginning of Washington’s foray into 2-A Eastern Plains Conference competition in baseball and softball. Both squads traveled to Southwest Edgecombe for their league openers and will host Farmville Central for their home conference openers on Friday.

Both the Pam Pack and Lady Pack have lofty goals in the conference. The boys won six of their last seven heading into Tuesday’s opener, seemingly overcoming some of the more mental facets of the game that proved troublesome early on.

The Pam Pack lost its season opener at Rose, a 4-A opponent, thanks to five sixth-inning runs scored by the hosts. Since then, Washington hasn’t had many issues holding onto a lead and closing out games. However, the boys lost their second and third games of the campaign after falling short of late comebacks. They scored four in the sixth against Riverside and five in the seventh at Edenton, but lost both contests by one run.

Prior to spring break, Washington showed its ability to both close out a game and complete a late comeback. Southside threatened with the tying run on third in the top of the seventh in an Easter tournament meeting, but Pam Pack pitcher Tripp Barfield got the strikeout to end the game and earn his team the 3-2 win.

Fast-forward to the tournament’s championship game between the Pam Pack and hosting Northside. The boys trailed 4-3 entering the top of the seventh. They had no one on and only one out to work with, but managed to push five runs across and held off a Panther comeback to win 8-6.

They have the talent to do some damage in conference, but showed the mental fortitude to do so, too.

The same could be said of the softball team. The girls have six players that have played in at least seven of the team’s 11 games batting over .300. Senior Chrissy McKissick leads the way with an astounding .485 batting average. She’s scored a dozen runs and batted in an additional four. Junior Jordan Pierce, who is batting .333, leads the team with nine RBI. He power at the plate has paid dividends as she leads the team with six extra-base hits.

There’s talent on the mound, too. Ace pitcher Hailey Harris has been invaluable thus far. She started 10 of the team’s first 11 games. She’s fanned 83 batters and walked 40 while building an earned run average of 2.64.

Washington’s 7-4 record, while impressive, isn’t indicative of exactly how good this team can be. The Lady Pack has taken on — and beaten — 3-A and 4-A teams in South Central and Northern Nash. Three of the team’s four losses have come against elite teams in Conley and East Carteret. The fourth came against Grassfield (Va.) in Conley’s Easter tournament. The Lady Grizzlies are the No. 1 team in Virginia, according to MaxPreps.

The Lady Pack has excelled, especially given the quality of its non-conference competition. Likely one of the most important takeaways from that will be the top-notch pitching the girls have faced thus far. It should prime them nicely for the conference stretch. Their home opener will be Friday against the Lady Jaguars.