To entertain Topsail in third round

By DAN BISER

PRINCETON – West Columbus pitcher Daniel Britt opened the game’s scoring by blasting a second-inning home run and later closed things out by retiring 12 straight batters.

Britt yielded four hits and and struck out seven batters as Coach Ricky Young’s Vikings shut out the host Princeton Bulldogs 5-0 Friday night in the second round of the state 1A high-school baseball playoffs.

West Columbus, now 24-2, will play host to the Topsail Pirates Tuesday night at 7 in the third round of the playoffs. Topsail, now holding a 22-3 record, advanced Friday with a 16-3 shellacking of Ayden-Grifton.

Britt threw 66 pitches for the Southeastern Conference champion Vikings as he improved his season mound record to 7-2. The Elon University-bound Britt has walked three batters all season.

Shortstop Ryan McCleney and leftfielder Brett Godwin each had two hits for West Columbus.

Britt led off the second inning by knocking an 0-2 curveball from Princeton starter Ryan Daugherty over the leftfield fence to give the Vikings a 1-0 lead. In the top of the sixth inning, Britt missed a grand slam by just a few feet when his shot was run down just in front of the 375-foot sign in straightaway centerfield.

Princeton, the Carolina Conference champion, got two hits by catcher Daniel Gerrell as the Bulldogs closed with a 16-6 record. Colin Parker relieved Daugherty in the fifth inning.

West Columbus, which had a hit in every inning, increased its lead to 2-0 in the third inning when lead-off hitter Devon Brown got on first, stole second and scored on a single by McCleney. McCleney had doubled in the first inning for the initial hit of the game.

The Vikings scored twice in the fifth inning when McCleney and J.D. White scored on a ground-out to third by Britt and a single to leftfield by Godwin.

Demichael Smith hit a one-out single in the sixth inning and later scored on a bases-loaded walk to Zack Andrews.

The Viking drew six walks and had a hit batter.

Princeton had only one baserunner in the final five innings and that came on a four-inning single between first and second by Gerrell. The Bulldogs got two of their hits in the first inning on singles by Patrick Gatewood and Gerrell.

“Daniel pitched another outstanding game and we made some good plays in the field,” Young said. “We came up with some big hits against a very solid baseball team.”

Britt said he was looking for a curveball with an 0-2 count when he ripped his home run.

“That’s what I got and I was able to get around it,” he said.

The winner of Tuesday’s West Columbus-Topsail game will take on the Manteo-Williamston winner in a best-of-three series March 25-27 for the Eastern N.C. 1A champion. The best-of-three state 1A championship series will be held June 1-3.

Britt an Andrews; Daugherty, Parker (5) and Gerrell.