PITTSBORO — Southern Lee’s Thomas Harrington hurled six and one-third shutout innings while the Cavaliers took advantage of a two-out, bases-clearing throwing error in the top of the seventh to break open a close contest before holding off a late Northwood comeback attempt to corral a 5-2 non-conference triumph over the Chargers Wednesday night at The Ronald Horton Baseball Complex.
The outcome left both teams with an identical 8-2 record for the season as Southern Lee defeated Northwood for the sixth time in eight meetings in a series that began in 2012.
Harrington picked up the win after allowing just three hits while walking two and striking out nine prior to Ethan Roth tossing the last two-thirds of an inning, surrendering a pair of unearned runs besides issuing one walk.
“Thomas has been solid every outing this season, throwing two complete-game shutouts while the pitch-count rule forced him to leave the mound tonight just two outs shy of recording a third,” said Southern Lee coach David Lee. “Pitching has been our strong point this year along with playing solid defense, and while the bats are still coming around I thought we ran the bases aggressively this evening to grind out a victory.”
Chargers’ starter Tyler Johnson went five and one-third innings and absorbed the loss despite yielding only two hits plus an unearned run in addition to issuing four free passes and fanning 10.
Northwood reliever Michael Posse threw one and one-third innings, giving up one hit and four runs (one earned) while walking four and whiffing three before Justin Szczypinski came on to register the final out.
“While we have talent and the potential is there, we’re still in the process of learning how to become a seven-inning team and not let down late in the game,” explained Chargers’ coach David Miller, who was the head coach at Southern Lee the previous eight seasons.
“We missed an opportunity to score early when we left the bases loaded in the second and then ran ourselves out of an inning in the fifth, but credit Harrington for throwing strikes and keeping us off-balance during his time on the mound.”
The Cavaliers grabbed a 1-0 advantage in the top of the third as Tanner Seagroves stroked a one-out opposite-field double to the left field fence and stole third one out later before coming in to score when Harrington reached on an infield throwing error.
Still clinging to its one-run lead entering the visitors’ seventh, Southern Lee capitalized on walks and a huge error to put the game away.
Roth led off the frame with a bunt single down the third base line and advanced to third on a pair of one-out wild pitches prior to Seagroves drawing a free pass.
One out later Roth was awarded home plate on a balk that moved Seagroves to second, and following back-to-back walks issued to Harrington and Dean Carver that loaded the bases, all three runners came in to score when Luke Craig raced all the way to third on a crucial infield throwing error, putting the Cavaliers ahead 5-0.
Northwood then managed to put its only runs on the board its final turn at-bat when Roth replaced Harrington on the hill and immediately walked Beau Weathers on four pitches.
After Weathers moved to second when Szczypinski was hit by a pitch, the former came in to score on an errant pickoff attempt at second as the latter dashed to third prior to tallying on a groundout by Dylan Hitt.