Porcupines fall in back-and-forth thriller against River Bandits

#8 Derek Farley and #17 Corbin Wright

Despite trailing the Tarboro River Bandits by 12 games in the win column, the Pineville Porcupines looked competitive against last year’s ONSL champions, leading for much of the game.

#4 Hank Bright

Hank Bright put together his best start of the season for Pineville, working out of trouble throughout the game to keep the River Bandits off of the scoreboard. Bright finished his day after five innings of work, striking out five and allowing just two hits, two walks and one run.

After Bright departed, Pineville held a 5-1 lead, but unfortunately for the Porcupines, their relievers had trouble finding command after that, as three pitchers from the Pineville bullpen combined to surrender 10 walks.

As a result, the Porcupines blew a 5-1 lead, an 8-7 lead and a 10-9 lead before ultimately falling by a score of 12-10 after Tarboro broke a 10-10 tie in the top of the ninth inning.

At the plate, the Porcupines were quite impressive throughout as eight of 10 Pineville batters registered hits. Of those eight, six Porcupines had multi-hit games. None of those hits were more important than those off the bat of Cohen Bettencourt, who plated four runs on two hits, including a three-RBI double.

Pineville will hope to end a three-game home losing streak Tuesday at Jack D. Hughes Memorial Park against the Hendersonville Honeycrisps.