TRURO - The first high school boys baseball game hosted by the Cobequid Cougars will go down in the history books as a draw.
The Cougars and Hants North Flames battled to a 1-1 stalemate in eight innings on Tuesday in front of a crowd of about 50 at Bible Hill Recreation Park.
It was the home opener for the Cougars, who began the season with four straight road games.
"It was a classic ball game," said Cougars coach Scott MacGillivray. "I thought the boys played well in front of a great crowd; there was a little bit of pressure, but they performed well and I thought it was a great ball game and we had our chances (to win) going into the eighth inning."
Kurtis Turner, Nic Morrow, Sam Byers and Jared Adams singled for the Cougars, who scored their lone run in the bottom of the first inning on an error. The Flames tied it in the third on an RBI single by Kyle McCulloch.
Right-hander Lucas Naugle pitched seven strong innings for CEC before handing the ball to Cameron MacKenzie for the extra inning.
This is the first year CEC has fielded a boys baseball team, and the Cougars have acquitted themselves well in the early going with a 3-0-1 record.
MacGillivray said that success can be attributed to team unity and pride players have in playing for their school.
"It's a big difference from their club teams," he said. "They understand that this is a school sport, they understand their responsibility of playing on the team and they seem to be really enjoying it. Some of these guys haven't played together in three or four years and a lot of them seem to be very happy to be back together and playing for their hometown and their high school."
The Cougars return to the diamond today when they host the North Nova Gryphons for a 6 p.m. start at the Bible Hill Recreation Park. Cobequid's lone loss this season came at the hands of the Gryphons last Saturday.
