N. Duplin nips Princeton

By Andrew Stevens
Published in Sports on April 28, 2010 1:46 PM

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PRINCETON -- North Duplin started strong and closed with a bang.

The Rebels scored early, rallied late and held off Princeton for a 6-5, Carolina 1-A Conference road win on Tuesday night.

Shayne Deaver led off the ballgame with a double to right field for the Rebels. Deaver later scored on Brian Chase's RBI groundout.

Princeton loaded the bases with two outs in each of the first two innings, but failed to score. The Bulldogs left 11 runners on base for the game, including six in scoring position.

North Duplin picked up two runs in the top of the third inning thanks to two Princeton errors. The Bulldogs committed three errors in the first three innings and finished with seven.

"We just beat ourselves," said Princeton head coach Bruce Proctor. "The first two innings we had the bases loaded and in the third inning we left two runners on. We left too many runners on and made too many mistakes."

Forest Stewart's RBI single to center field in the bottom of the third got the Bulldogs on the board and cut the lead to 3-1.

Tyler Daniels' groundout in the bottom of the fourth inning scored Patrick Jacobs and pulled Princeton to within 3-2. Two batters later, Austin Hinton's RBI double tied the game at 3-3.

The Rebels loaded the bases with no outs in the top of the fifth. Hinton struck out Will Lanier and Joseph King, and got Konner Brock to fly out to end the threat.

Sean Carpenter's pinch-hit RBI groundout in the home half of the fifth gave the Bulldogs their first lead at 4-3. Luke Mitchell later scored on a double-steal.

Julio Mora and Marcus Kornegay both scored on a pair of Princeton errors in the top of the sixth to tie the game at 5-5. James Kornegay's RBI single put North Duplin in front 6-5.

"You've got to have a little luck along the way," said Rebels head coach Joey Keefe. "I felt like we had enough to help us tonight. They made some errors at some key points. That really hurt them, but it helped us out a lot."

The Bulldogs put the tying run on base in the bottom of the seventh with Phillip Mitchell's lead-off single. Stewart bunted Mitchell to second base and Luke Mitchell's groundout got Mitchell to third with two outs.

Jacobs' hit a ground ball deep in the hole on the left side of the infield. North Duplin shortstop James Kornegay ranged to his right and fired to first to throw out Jacobs and end the ballgame.

"It's kind of funny in the middle of last week we started doing a few more things on the backhand side and ranging away from the bag and coming up and having to make a throw," said Keefe. "We drilled yesterday for probably an hour. It definitely worked out for us tonight."

Brian Chase earned the win on the mound surrendering five earned runs on 12 hits with four walks and three strikeouts in six innings of work. Ryan Wolfe earned the save with a scoreless inning of relief.

Hinton was a tough-luck loser, giving up six runs (two earned) on nine hits with 11 strikeouts and two walks over six innings.

Julio Mora led the Rebels with three hits and James Kornegay added two hits and an RBI.

Stewart (RBI), Hinton (RBI), Daniels (RBI), Phillip Mitchell and Patrick Jacobs each had two hits for the Bulldogs.

Princeton (5-15 overall, 2-5 CC) travels to North Johnston today, while North Duplin (11-4, 4-3) plays host to Ayden-Grifton on Friday.