RALEIGH - Jacob Alphin¹s single drove home two runs in the bottom of the sixth and broke a 1-1 tie to lift North Lenoir to a 3-1 victory over Black Mountain Charles D. Owen on Friday night in the first game of the North Carolina High School Athletic Association state 2-A baseball championship series at Wakefield High School.

Game two of the best-of-three series is scheduled at Wakefield High for one o¹clock Saturday afternoon. If Owen wins to tie the series, the decisive game will be played starting approximately an hour after the completion of game two.

The Hawks got an outstanding pitching performance from sophomore Sthil Sowers, who went the distance on the mound without allowing an earned run, yielding only four hits while striking out 11 and walking just one. He ran his record to 10-1 on the season while Steven Hensley, who fanned seven and issued one walk, was charged with the loss.

The Hawks opened the scoring with two outs in the third when Joshua Williams slammed a 2-2 pitch out of the park for a 1-0 lead.

Owen came back to tie the game in the fourth, as the Warhorses parlayed a single by Hensley, a couple of North Lenoir errors and a dropped third strike into a run.

After Alphin¹s heroics in the sixth, the Warhorses staged a major threat of their own with two outs in the seventh as singles by Kyle Chandler and Seth Myers put a pair of runners on. But Sowers fanned pinch hitter Zach Brockman to end the game.

Brandon Sutton and Andrew Manning each had two hits for North Lenoir, now 23-4 and winners of eight straight. Hensley had two of the four hits for Owen, now 22-7 overall.

Charles D. Owen -- 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 - 1 4 1

North Lenoir ----- 0 0 1 0 0 2 x - 3 7 2

Pitchers: Owen--Steven Hensley; North‹Sthil Sowers.

WP-Sowers (10-1). LP--Hensley (7-4). HR: North-Joshua Williams, solo in 3rd.