On a very windy and chilly baseball field, Cape Hatteras Secondary defeated Ocracoke 4-2.

The wind was blowing 30 miles an hour and the temperature felt like 43 degrees.

Amazingly, the game was a pitching duel. Starting pitchers Dylan Esham for Ocracoke and Cody MacDowell for Cape Hatteras battled for five innings.

For MacDowell, the first inning was three up, three down.

But, Esham gave up two runs in the first when leadoff hitter Colby Day and Wheeler Ballance walked and made the circuit. Esham made quick work of three Cape Hatteras batters.

In the second, pitcher Esham smacked a single, stole second and eventually scored. McDowell struck out two batters but hit David Styron with a pitch and walked two to load the bases. The third out came on a hit to second by Jackson Strange and a throw out by Bryan Garcia to Zeb Shoemaker on first.

At the end of two, the score was 2-1 Cape Hatteras. The score stayed that way.

In the third, MacDowell faced three batters. Esham saw five with two walks and three strikeouts.

In the fourth, both pitchers faced three batters. Both recorded strikeouts, either swings or called third strikes.

In the fifth, MacDowell got a called third strike on Ethan O’Neal. He walked Parker Gaskill. Strange hit a ball straight to Shoemaker on first who threw to second to catch Gaskill for a double play. Cape Hatteras sent three batters up; two recorded strikeouts and one was out on a second-to-first throw.

In the sixth, Bryan Garcia came to the mound for Cape Hatteras. An error put Mason Fuller on first base. Fuller made third on stolen bases and tied the game at 2 on a second-to-first out.

Cape Hatteras scored two in the bottom of the sixth. Ballance got on base hit by a ball, made second on another error, stole third and scored on Jon Canning’s sacrifice bunt down the first base line. MacDowell scored the second run of the inning. Kalai Samick came to the mound for Ocracoke and got the final out with a play at home plate.

For Cape Hatteras, John Contestable denied Ocracoke in the bottom of the seventh. He struck out one and threw to first for two outs. He is credited with a save. Garcia, who was injured in the sixth, gets the win.

Ocracoke had two runs on one hit and two errors. Cape Hatteras scored four runs on no hits and three errors.

Springtime weather has messed up schedules.

Cape Hatteras Middle baseball team is scheduled to play in Ocracoke on Friday, March 29. Track meets may not run this week. Varsity baseball and softball teams are expected to play at Mattamuskeet on Friday. The Cape Hatteras girls soccer team is expected to play on Thursday in Buxton at 6 p.m. against Bear Grass.

READ MORE SPORTS COVERAGE HERE.

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