CHOCOWINITY — Washington’s 10U all stars struck first with two runs in the opening frame and did enough defensively to scoot past Havelock, 14-9, on Monday to finish 3-0 in pool play in the eastern North Carolina Babe Ruth softball state tournament.

Despite winning all three games, Washington will not likely be a top seed heading into the double-elimination tournament due to tiebreakers.

Bella Boykin started the game on the mound for Washington, but handed the ball over to Emaleigh Cherry after holding Havelock off the board in the first inning. Cherry allowed a two-RBI triple to Saleaje George before striking out the next two batters to halt the offensive spurt from the visitors.

Zariyah Gorham led off the bottom of the second with a triple of her own. She came across on an RBI groundout by Emma Harris, which gave Washington the lead again. With two outs, one-spot batter Peyton Youmans belted the team’s second triple of the frame and scored on a passed ball shortly thereafter.

Washington’s two-out onslaught continued. Charli Simons, Boykin and Cherry came up with consecutive RBI singles to give the home side a 7-2 lead after two innings.

Andria Krupey, Elana Krupey and George had RBI knocks in the third to help cut Washington’s lead to one, 7-6, but it didn’t last long. Washington stranded two Havelock players in scoring position before peppering on another pair of runs itself.

Facing a new pitcher, Gorham led off by drawing a walk and Mica Lilley reached on an error. Both came in to score when Jacqueline Gutierez roped a base hit down the right-field line.

Lilley took over pitching duties to start the fourth. She hit the first two batters she faced. Havelock scraped together the three runs it needed to tie the game at nine apiece, but Lilley settled in and struck out three batters in the stanza.

Washington continued to see the ball well in the bottom of the fourth. Boykin knocked an infield single and then stole second base. She came across when Cherry reached on an error. She scampered in on a passed ball, and Gutierez and Youmans came up with back-to-back RBI singles to right field.

Boykin took the mound at the start of the fifth inning. She struck out all three batters she faced before adding an insurance run in the bottom of the inning to make it 14-9.

The double-elimination tournament begins Tuesday.