With its win against Neuse Charter on Tuesday afternoon, Princeton kept itself in the playoff hunt.
The Bulldogs defeated Neuse Charter 10-0 in six innings to improve their record to 6-3 overall.
“I thought we came at swinging the bats at the start, and then we took a couple of innings off and let the Neuse Charter pitcher settle in a little bit,” Princeton head coach Noah Edens said. “But then we got back on him and made him throw the ball where we wanted to hit it.
“We were able to hit some balls hard.”
Trace Hickman’s RBI single and Charlie Benton’s RBI ground out gave the Bulldogs a 2-0 in the bottom of the first inning.
Princeton could not score any runs in the second, third, and fourth innings, but pitcher Grey Gurganious managed to hold off the Cougars.
Throughout the game, the Cougars rarely threatened, but in the top of the fourth with two outs, Cougars managed to get a runner scoring position, but Gurganious struck out Luke Turecky to get the Bulldogs out of the inning.
“Grey did not have his best stuff right out of the gate, but he battled through it,” Edens said. “Grey is tough, he really is, and the mark of a good pitcher is when you don’t have it, but you can still get through it and shut a team out for six innings.”
In the fifth inning, Wade Sullivan scored off a wild pitch, while Jacob Barnes hit an RBI single to increase Princeton’s lead up to 4-0, and later in the inning, the Bulldogs scored two more runs to build up a 6-0 lead.
Then in the bottom of the sixth inning, Hickman and Tyler Thompson both hit RBI singles.
Now leading 8-0, Weston Evan and Paul Edens drew bases-loaded walks to give Princeton a 10-0 advantage, which ended the game.
“We talked every day in practice about body language and not letting anybody get down on themselves,” Edens said.
Princeton has another big matchup against Hobbton (6-2) today at 4 p.m. Edens said the Bulldogs control their own destiny and have to take things one game at a game.
“Our future is in our hands. We just need to take it one game at a time,” Edens said. “We just try to stay focused from one event to the next.”
