NK 17 Southampton 5 (baseball)

Exploding for 15 runs in the fourth inning, New Kent’s Trojans wiped out a two-run deficit on the way to a 17-5 Bay Rivers District baseball conquest of Southampton’s invading Indians.

During the decisive frame, the Trojans smacked 11 hits — seven singles, two doubles, a triple, and a home run — to put away the Indians and up their district record to 3-7.

“We just lit it up,” Trojan coach Ronnie Cox said after last Thursday’s contest. “All of a sudden it opened up for us and we just kept on hitting.”

New Kent’s bat prowess actually manifested itself two frames before in the second when Derrick Curtis doubled and scored on Mitchell Baker’s sacrifice fly. Joey Bell then doubled and raced home on a double by Jake Williams to open a 2-0 lead.

But Southampton retaliated in the third, pushing across four runs to take the lead. Starting pitcher Ryan Whisenant shut down the hosts in the bottom of the frame, and it appeared the Trojans could be on the verge of dropping another close game.

But then came the Trojan fourth that started with a Curtis single. The Trojans moved in front to stay when Steven Allen cleared the bases with a three-run triple. Later in the inning, Bell doubled in two more runs and Jake Jones earned a RBI with another double. Jimmy Newcomb drove in two runs on a single, and Allen climaxed the frame with a two-run blast over the left field fence.

“I think the reason we hit so well is we weren’t just hacking away,” Cox said. “We waited for good pitches and we got them.”

Allen, working in relief of winning pitcher Ryan Patterson, loaded the bases in the fifth and final inning, giving up one run on a two-out wild pitch before getting an infield ground out to end the game.