WINDSOR – After winning their first two games – both on the road – Bertie High School’s baseball team dropped their home opener as South Creek beat the Falcons 10-1 here Friday afternoon.

The Cougars opened the scoring with four runs in the top of the second inning and never looked back from there. The frame was highlighted by Austin Lee who had an RBI double as South Creek plated four runs to lead it 4-0 going into the bottom of the inning.

The Falcons scored their only run of the game in the bottom of the second. Cody Matthews singled to centerfield and went to second on an Alex Harmon seeing-eye single into the gap in center. Harmon was lifted for pinch-runner Trekell Scott and both he and Matthews moved up on a wild pitch putting a pair of Bertie runners in scoring position. Matthews would then score on a Michael Scott sacrifice fly, but the Falcons could not get another run across the dish and had to settle for a 4-1 score after two complete innings of play.

The Cougars scored two more runs in the top of the third. Jeremy Bembridge banged out an RBI double and Brandon Battle had a sacrifice fly to get the runs across.

In the bottom of the third Matthew Weaver led off for Bertie with a base-on-balls and later stole second. With one out, David Watford reached on an infield single and with two out Adam Cowand had an infield single to load the bases. However, they were turned into dead-ducks on the pond for the Falcons as a flyout to left field ended the inning with the home team now trailing, 6-1.

South Creek added three more runs in the top of the fifth to make it 9-1, Cougars, after five full innings of play. The visitors would get their final run of the evening in the top of the seventh for the 10-1 final as Bertie could not mount a nine-run comeback in the bottom of the frame. In fact, the Falcons had just one hit in the last four innings of the game and that was a Weaver lead-off single in the bottom of the fifth.

In all Bertie had six hits in the game and were led by David Watford who went two-for-five. Cowand, Matthews, Harmon, and Weaver each had one hit.

The Falcons used five pitchers with Cowand hurling the first two innings and getting tagged with the loss. Watford, Matthews, Christian Bland, and Jacob Damo also pitched.

Bertie falls to 2-1 on the young season and opened Northeastern Coastal Conference play back on the road in Kill Devil Hills against the Nighthawks of First Flight on Monday night at 7 p.m. However, the game was not complete by press time. They won’t play another home game until March 19 when they host Northeastern.