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Oak Island Loggerheads advance to Coastal Division championship game

July 26, 2026, 10:37 pm | by Tim Hower

The Oak Island Loggerheads will get a chance to repeat as Old North League Coastal Division champions. 

A pair of local pitchers – Cole Barnes (UNC Greensboro/Ashley) and Evan Coartney (Savannah State, Ga./South Brunswick) – combined on a four-hitter with seven strikeouts to lead Oak Island to a 3-0 road victory over the Cape Fear Ghost Crabs in a semifinal game Sunday at UNCW’s Brooks Field.

The Loggerheads (16-15) will play at the regular season champion Sandhills Bogeys on Monday night at 7 p.m. in the championship game. 

Sandhills won all six regular season meetings, but Oak Island has made a habit of winning in the playoffs.

After finishing with the worst regular season record in the division last summer, the Loggerheads reeled off three consecutive victories to claim the title. 

Now, they will look to repeat and advance back to the best-of-three East Regional Championship Series, which begins Tuesday.

Barnes started and allowed just one hit in five scoreless innings to lower his ERA to 1.93. Coartney took over and was just as dominant over the final four innings. 

Coartney was fired up coming off the mound after recording strikeouts to end both the seventh and eighth innings. He allowed a one-out double in the ninth, but got a ground out to end the game.

Oak Island finished with 10 hits, including three from Matthew Perez (Catawba Valley CC). 

Justin Dawkins (North Greenville, S.C.) went 2-for-3 with a walk and one run scored. Donovan Brooks (Neumann, Pa.) and Rocco Tenuta (Hillsdale, Mich.) both finished 2-for-4. 

Tenuta led off the top of the fourth inning with a double to left field and later scored what turned out to be the winning run. A ground out from Ayden Cline (Missouri St. Louis) plated Dawkins to make it 2-0. 

Tenuta also crossed the plate with the final run in the sixth. He singled,  moved to third base on a base hit from Dawkins, and scored on a sacrifice fly from Will Lehman (Hillsdale, Mich.).

Cape Fear (24-11) got a pair of hits from Trey Pierce (Brunswick CC/WCA), who ended the summer with an outstanding .387 batting average. 

Sean Smith (UNC Pembroke/New Hanover) was the hard-luck loser. He allowed two earned runs with four strikeouts in six innings. Relief pitcher Max Swart (Immaculata, Pa.) threw three scoreless innings.