WILSON – Number-seven will have to wait.

After six state championships in eight years – and a two-year absence from the title series – Lawrence Academy couldn’t re-capture the magic and fell in a pair of one-run games to The Oakwood School.

In game-two of the best-of-three, the Eagles’ Zarion Sharpe pitched a two-hit shutout and his Eagles teammates made their lone run stand up and beat the Warriors 1-0. The victory gave the Greenville school its first-ever state championship as they swept the best-of-three series in two games.

It came down to a pitching duel between a pair of seniors who gave no quarter: UNC-Wilmington signee Sharpe, and Chowan-bound Tyler Jones, who surrendered the one unearned run in a seven-inning, seven-hit, complete-game effort resulting in a loss.

In the bottom of the first inning, the Warriors’ Daquan Wilson ripped a Sharpe offering into left field for a one-out base hit. But his teammates couldn’t pick him up as Sharpe got the next two outs to keep the game scoreless after one.

Despite Sharpe’s prowess, Lawrence was able to get on base. Gage Cooke drew a walk in the bottom of the second inning and likewise a base-on-balls for Slade Cowan in the bottom of the fourth. But Lawrence just couldn’t manufacture a hit to get any runners home; but neither could the Eagles, so it remained 0-0 through four full innings.

In the top of the fifth, Oakwood’s Jackson Carriere got a base hit, followed by Sharpe with another safety for back-to-back hits for the Eagles. With one out, Austin Goins lifted a fly ball into centerfield, far enough to score Carriere with the first run of the game. Lawrence couldn’t mount anything in the bottom of the inning and it was 1-0 after five complete.

In the bottom of the sixth, Bryant Goodwin bunted his way on base, but he just couldn’t be moved up. The same occurred when Tyler Baker got a two-out walk in the bottom of the seventh. But facing their last hope, Lawrence got a pop-up that fell into first baseman Blake Owen’s glove, and that was the ball game.

It had to be especially crushing for Jones, who absorbed the loss in both games.

“We said from day-one that nothing was going to be given to us, we had to work for everything we got,“ said Jones. “The first couple of weeks, I didn’t know about this team; but we formed a bond, and we fought for everything we got. That’s the best thing I’ll take away from this year: how we grew to become a family.”

“I don’t think we disappointed anybody this year,” said first-year coach Jason Wynne. “With two one-run games, that’s baseball. We wish we could have had a couple of more plays. I told them when I came in last fall that this year was going to be about hard work; and this year has been a credit to all the hard work they put in.”

“We left these young guys a lot to live up to, and they better be ready to pull some weight,” said Goodwin, a senior. “I had my four years, now it’s their turn.”

For Oakwood, there was vindication for last year’s loss in the championship series to Greenfield School. Still, former Hertford County player (and later HCHS head coach) and now Oakwood coach Brandon Hodges, gave words of praise to the Warriors.

“Last year that was us losing by a run in the bottom of the seventh inning,” Hodges said. “Jarrett Ray and Tyler gave us all we could handle out there today. Wherever those two go from here, they’ll be fine.”

After the game, the NC Independent Schools Athletic Association All-State team was announced with Harrell and Jones making that prestigious list.