N. Duplin-Lejeune baseball

By Andrew Stevens
Published in Sports on March 24, 2011 1:47 PM

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CALYPSO -- Mitchell Thigpen let his defense and the wind do the work behind him, and he flirted with a no-hitter along the way.

The sophomore right-hander carried a no-hitter into the fifth inning and got just enough run support in North Duplin's 3-0, non-conference win over Lejeune on Wednesday.

With the wind howling in from the outfield, Thigpen retired the first seven batters he faced. The Devil Pups' only base runner through the first four innings came on a walk.

Gavin Allen's lead-off single to left field in the fifth inning broke up Thigpen's no-hitter. Allen collected Lejeune's only two hits.

Thigpen (1-1) pitched a complete-game shutout and struck out seven with four walks to earn the win.

"Mitchell did well," said Rebels' head coach Brad Lloyd. "He's getting better. He's get a lot of work to do, but he pitched seven innings and I'm proud of him."

Larry White's two-run home run in the bottom of the first inning gave North Duplin a 2-0 lead. Tyler Royal drove home a run on a fielder's choice in the home half of the third inning.

Colby Gehron had two hits for North Duplin and the Rebels finished with just four hits.

"That's one of the bad things about today is we didn't really give Mitchell a lot of run support," said Lloyd. "One day we're good to go and then like today our bats are cold. If we play in our conference like that, it's going to be rough. A lot of it is in our heads."

North Duplin (7-1 overall) begins Carolina 1-A Conference play on Friday at Goldsboro.