The Lakewood Leopards varsity baseball team was back in action Thursday night, facing off against the Cougars of Neuse Charter. The Leopards walked all over the Cougars and won the game easily, 11-1.
On a chilly night at Lakewood High School, Leopards’ pitcher Aaron Butler helped propel his team to the win as he pitched an excellent game and rarely had any mishaps, and the stellar play reflected on the scoreboard as the game was called in the fifth inning with the Leopards pouring on the runs. Lakewood head coach Jay Faircloth heaped praise upon Butler for his play, as Butler was one of Lakewood’s MVPs, according to Faircloth.
The game started out fairly slow for each team, with neither team putting up any points in the first inning. The second inning was a different story, with Lakewood scoring three runs, but the Leopards were still unable to pull away as the Cougars hung around. Neuse Charter kept it close for a few innings and tamed the Leopards until the fifth inning.
Neither team scored any runs in the third inning, and the Cougars pulled to within two with a run to make it 3-1 in the top of the fourth. The Leopards, however, answered with a run of their own in the bottom of the fourth to make it 4-1. This Lakewood run was only a preview of what was to come.
Lakewood busted the game open in the fifth inning, stealing bases at will and frustrating Neuse Charter with line drive hits. The Leopards scored run after run and soon the scoreboard showed an 11-1 lead for the Leopards as the Cougars were simply unable to stop the Lakewood onslaught. With the game well out of reach for Neuse Charter, it was called by way of the run-rule, sealing Lakewood’s 11-1 victory.
Faircloth was proud of his boys after the win, pointing out several areas where the Leopards did exceptionally well on Thursday night.
“I thought we did pretty much everything well. Our defense was good; it was really solid. The chemistry, everything is just working good,” the coach said.
Dylan Ivey joined Butler as his MVP, as Faircloth noted how well of a game Ivey played in the outfield. The Leopards improve to 4-2 overall and are 3-1 in the Carolina 1A Conference.
Neuse Charter head coach Jeremy Repka was frustrated with his team after the loss. “It was good for most of the game and then it got away from us in the end there,” Ripka said.
The Cougars fall to 2-6-1 overall and are now 1-4 in the conference.
Lakewood was to be back in action on Friday hosting North Duplin.