AHOSKIE – Junior Chris Adams pitched a four hitter and Hertford County pound out 15 hits as the Bears beat Northampton County 15-1 in non-conference baseball action here Friday afternoon.

The Bears opened the scoring with three runs in the bottom of the first inning.  J.J. Gatling led off by reaching first base on an error.  Tyler Pope followed and was hit by a pitch.  Brandon Terry then stroked an infield single to load the bases.  Pinch runner Anthony Lassiter ran for Terry. Gatling and Pope then scored on a Bryan Merritt two-run single to left field as Lassiter advanced to third on the throw home.  He would later score on an Austin Hurdle sacrifice fly and the Bears led 3-0 after one inning.

Hertford County broke the game open in the bottom of the second inning by putting up eight runs.  Chris Adams singled to left to begin the inning and then stole second.  Adams then went to third on a Dylan Waterfield double to left.  Pope walked to load the bases and all three runs scored on a three-run double into the gap in right center field by Terry.  Later Merritt drew a walk and pinch-runner Lassiter scored on Ryan Weaver’s RBI single to right.  Merritt scored on a Hurdle RBI infield single.  Ackerman Grace walked to load the bases and Weaver came home on another base-on-balls, this time to Adams.  Hurdle scored on a Waterfield RBI single and Grace scored on Gatling’s sacrifice fly to give Hertford County an 11-0 lead after two innings.

Northampton scored its only run of the game in the top of the third inning.  Austin Watkins walked, stole second and third and scored on a Keion Crossen RBI infield single.

Hertford County added two more runs in the bottom of the inning.  Terry singled to right and pinch-runner Lassiter would get to second base on a Merritt single.  Weaver followed with another base hit to load the bases.  Lassiter scored on a walk to Hurdle for one RBI and Merritt would score on an Adams RBI single for a 13-1 lead in favor of the Bears.

Hertford County’s final two runs came in the bottom of the fourth inning when Nick Adams singles to left and went to second on a Merritt single to left.  Weaver then beat out an infield single as Adams scored on an error on the same play.  Merritt scored on a Hurdle sacrifice fly for a 15-1 Bear lead after four innings.  Adams then got a pair of strikeouts in the top of the fifth inning to end the game.

Adams allowed just the one run for his five innings of work to get the win.  He surrendered four hits and had six strikeouts.

At the plate Terry had three hits and drove in three runs. Merritt had three hits and two RBI while Weaver had three hits and drove in one run.  Chris Adams had two hits and two RBI while Waterfield had two hits and one RBI.  Hurdle had just one hit but drove in four runs and Nick Adams had the other hit for the Bears.

Crossen, Matt Wheeler, Christian Boone, and Kelvin Gee accounted for the four hits for Northampton.

“Chris Adams pitched a good game for us,” said HertfordCounty coach Chris Towell.  “He threw strikes and we played good defense behind him. I was proud of the team as we didn’t lose focus after losing a tough conference game on Thursday.  We also hit the ball well today.”

Hertford County is 5-1 and was back in conference action at Northeastern on Monday in a game that was not complete at press time. The Bears’ next home game is Friday at 7 p.m. against Currituck County.