NEWSOMS—Behind another strong performance on the mound from Josh Riddick and an offensive eruption that produced nine runs on 12 hits, the Newsoms Pony baseball team won the Southampton/Sussex Baseball championship for the second year in a row Saturday at Southampton Academy.

Newsoms advanced to the Championship game by avenging two previous regular season losses by defeating Wakefield 7-0 in the league semi-final. Riddick pitched a complete game, throwing a 1 hitter while striking out 5 batters. Jack Bunn led the offense in that game going three for three at the plate and scoring two runs. Zachary Vann also was three for three with a double and two singles.

Sedley entered the championship game as the top seed in the tournament. For the season they compiled a 14-1 (7-1) record and were the favorite to win as they had defeated Newsoms twice during the regular season. Newsoms was the third seed in the tournament and had a 12-4 (4-4) record.

Newsoms jumped out on top 1-0 in the first inning when Zachary Vann scored on a Jack Bunn single to rightfield. Newsoms would add three more runs in the second inning when Jeffrey Vincent scored on a Zachary Vann sacrifice bunt. Josh Riddick drove in Mason Wright with a ground-rule double to left-centerfield. Lewis Mayes followed that with a single back up the middle to score Riddick.

Sedley would not get on the board until the 5th inning when T.C. Cobb singled, advanced to third on an error and later scored when Jake Pope grounded out on a fielder’s choice to Mason Wright making the score 4-1 at the end of 5 innings.

Newsoms added two more runs in the 6th inning when Mason Wright and Zachary Vann both drew walks and scored on another Riddick double. Sedley would score again in the bottom of the sixth inning when Chad Vincent singled to score Tyler Peck with two outs making the score 6-2 in favor of Newsoms.

Newsoms was not done as they tacked on 3 more runs in the final inning. Mason Wright scored on a Jack Bunn hit. Then Zachary Vann who had gotten on with a double, followed by Josh Riddick’s intentional walk scored when Lewis Mayes stroked a double to the left-center gap.

Taking the mound in the bottom of the 7th with a 9-2 lead, Riddick remained effective, keeping the ball low in the strike zone to get two ground ball outs and striking out one in the final inning to seal the victory.