Baseball Game Preview: North Lenoir Hawks vs. East Duplin Panthers

North Lenoir and East Duplin are an even 4-4 against one another since April of 2022, but likely not for long. The Hawks will be playing in front of their home fans against the Panthers at 6:00 p.m. on Thursday. The two teams have allowed few runs on average (North Lenoir 4, East Duplin 3.5) so any runs scored will be well earned.

North Lenoir is headed in fresh off scoring the most runs they have all season. They blew past Kinston 25-2 on Wednesday. Considering the Hawks have won five matchups by more than five runs this season, Wednesday's blowout was nothing new.

Daniel Boyette

Hits Against

04/16/25 @ Kinston	2
04/01/25 @ James Kenan	1
03/21/25 vs Kinston	0

Daniel Boyette looked comfortable as he struck out eight batters over four innings while giving up just one earned run off two hits. He has been consistent recently: he hasn't given up more than two hits in three consecutive appearances.

On the hitting side, North Lenoir got a massive performance out of Cristian Veal, who scored three runs and stole a base while getting on base in three of his five plate appearances. Those three runs gave Veal a new career-high. Hunter Southerland was another key player, going a perfect 2-for-2 with two runs, one triple, and one stolen base.

Meanwhile, it was close, but on Tuesday East Duplin sidestepped North Lenoir for a 9-8 win. The victory made it back-to-back wins for the Panthers.

Kyle Kern tossed a big game, striking out nine batters over 6.2 innings while giving up five earned (and two unearned) runs off seven hits.

At the plate, Jack Tuck and Sawyer Marshburn did most of the damage at the plate: Tuck scored two runs while going 1-for-1, while Marshburn went 2-for-4 with three RBI and one double. That double marked the first that Marshburn hit this season. The team also got some help courtesy of Austin Rouse, who went 1-for-4 with two RBI and one double.

North Lenoir is on a roll lately: they've won ten of their last 11 contests. That's provided a nice bump to their 12-4 record this season. The victories came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 3.4 runs on average over those games. As for East Duplin, their win bumped their record up to 9-6.