ECRU - Since Peyton Belk expanded his pitching options, the wins are adding up.

The left-hander provided a solid 61/3 innings on the mound and Benjamin Bowen had a productive afternoon at the plate as South Pontotoc beat North Pontotoc 4-3 in a non-division baseball game on Saturday.

Belk, a 6-foot-1 sophomore, limited the Vikings to four hits to improve to a team-leading 4-1 record for the season.

"I added a couple more pitches to my arsenal and I've been able to use them," he said, referring to his cutter, splitter and two-seam fastball. "I felt good today, and threw with confidence."

Bowen, a junior, went 2 for 3, with a single, double, walk and a run scored. He picked up the first hit of the game off North Pontotoc starter Mackenzie McKnight (0-2) in the third inning, moving Ryne Long into scoring position.

Long scored on a sacrifice fly by Matt Adams to get South Pontotoc (8-8) on the board. The Cougars added a pair of runs in the fourth on back-to-back singles by Jonathan Duncan and Ryan Roberts to go ahead 3-0.

North Pontotoc (8-5) pulled within 3-2 on two-out hits by Colby Graham in the fourth and sixth.

Bowen doubled and scored the decisive run on a sacrifice grounder by Nathan Newell in the seventh. The Vikings scrambled for a run in the bottom of the inning, but stranded runners at the corners.

stout defense

"Belk pitched his tail off and we played great defense behind him," said South Pontotoc coach Bryan Buckner. "We made plays, scooped it out of the dirt and threw them out. It's good for us to play defense behind a pitcher who's really pitching."

Three of North's four hits were doubles, but it left runners on base in every inning except the third.

"Their pitcher threw real well and they made a lot of plays on defense, and we didn't play as well as they did," said North Pontotoc coach Chad Anthony, whose squad lost to its county rival for the first time since 2009. "He threw strikes and kept us off balance."