ELIZABETH CITY – The Bertie High School baseball team won its fifth game in a row Friday as they topped Pasquotank High School 8-2 in Northeastern Coastal Conference baseball action.

Cody Matthews became the Falcons winningest pitcher on the season as he picked up his fourth win of the year.  Matthews pitched a complete game giving up one earned run while scattering five hits and striking out three.

At the dish Bertie banged out 14 hits. Adam Cowand was 3-for-4 while teammate Christian Bland was 2-for-4 and Alex Harmon was 2-for-3.  Matthews, Tommy Cowan, Matthew Weaver, Michael Scott, and Javier Pagola had the other hits for the Falcons with Pagola driving in a pair of runs with a second inning single.  Weaver, Harmon, Bland, Scott and Matthew Evans had the other RBI’s for Bertie.

“I thought Cody was brilliant on the mound,” said Bertie coach Bobby Harmon. “He kept the ball down, changed speeds, and got a lot of ground balls.  At the plate, we really put together some good at-bats against one of the conference’s toughest pitchers in Bryce Keziah.  This was a good win for us as we head into a tough match-up on Monday versus Edenton.”

Bertie got a run in the first inning and then went to work, banging out five hits and putting up four more runs for a 5-0 lead after an inning and a half with the highlight being Pagola’s two run scoring single.

Pasquotank came back to get one run back in their half of the third for a 5-1 score.

The game became out of reach for the Panthers in the top of the seventh when Bertie pushed three more runs across thanks to doubles by Cowan and Scott – the only extra-base hits Bertie had for the entire game.

The Falcons had a showdown game for second place in the conference Monday night against Edenton J.A. Holmes in a game moved up a night because of the threat of rain.   The game was not complete at press-time but look for details in a future edition of the News-Herald.

Bertie has a road game at Mattamuskeet on Thursday before they co-host their own Easter Invitational tournament with Hertford County High beginning Saturday in Windsor and Ahoskie with the championship and consolation games set for Easter Monday at Bertie.