By JAKE POTTER
and DENNIS WILLIAMSON

The West Columbus Vikings kept their hopes for a state 1A high school baseball championship alive with a third-round 8-3 win over visiting Topsail Tuesday night.

The Vikings (25-2) came out swinging— notching 10 hits in all— then drove the nail in the coffin with a three-run fifth inning.

The win guarantees a spot in the best-of-three Eastern 1A championship series against Manteo, which beat Williamston in the third round.

West Columbus struck first during the second inning after Brett Godwin, who reached base on an error, scored off a Chason Ford single with two outs.

Topsail immediately responded with two runs in the top of the third and appeared to be gaining ground early in the game. During the fourth, the Pirates, sitting on a one-run lead, loaded the bases with only one out. But an attempted suicide squeeze backfired when, after the batter failed to connect on a bunt, the Viking infield ran down one runner and tagged another advancing to third for a double play to end the inning.

West Columbus head coach Ricky Young called the double play the game’s turning point.

After the fourth inning, the Viking offense didn’t look back.

Brett Godwin, who went 2-for-3 on the night, singled and later tied the game on a wild pitch in the fourth inning.

Ryan McCleney, who picked up two hits, drove in Corey Duncan to put the Vikings up one early in the fifth. After McCleney and Zack Andrews pulled off a double steal, McCleney decided to test the waters and steal home. The Pirate rightfielder lost in the lights winning pitcher Daniel Britt’s pop fly, scoring one more run before the inning drew to a close.

Topsail’s Victor Delgado slammed a home run over the centerfield wall in the sixth inning, but the Pirates couldn’t recover after West responded by putting three more runs on the scoreboard.

Britt earned the win for the Vikings. The losing pitcher was Topsail’s Thomas Jones.

Young noted his team’s strong baserunning—five steals in all, three during the fifth inning—and several key hits which drove in runs with outs on the board.

The Vikings knocked off Union and Princeton in the first and second rounds.

The Eastern 1A championship is a best-of-three series, with games being played today, Friday and Saturday.

If the Vikings were to win the series, they would play in the state 1A championship series June 1-3.

Jones, Rand (6) and Bremer; White, Britt (3) and Andrews.