Coming off a 12-0 first round win, the Sandhills Optimist Pony League All-Star team dropped a close 4-2 ballgame in the second round to fall into the loser’s bracket of the Pony Piedmont Section tournament in Randleman this week.

The all-stars got a one-hitter from pitcher Pete VanCamp in defeating Raleigh Green Road Tuesday, moving into a second-round battle with Rockingham Wednesday.

Against Rockingham, the all-stars’ bats fell silent on the way to the 4-2 loss.

Sandhills was scheduled to play Carrboro Thursday in the opening round of the loser’s bracket. If the team won that game it will play at 6 p.m. tonight.

In Tuesday’s win over Green Road, VanCamp only faced 19 batters, one over the minimum of 18 batters in the six-inning contest.

The only hit he allowed was to Jesse Gruenfelder in the third inning, but Gruenfelder was erased on the base paths. In the sixth inning, VanCamp hit Matt Flamenia with a pitch. Other than that Green Road didn’t have a batter reach base.

VanCamp went two-for-four at the plate, including two doubles.

VanCamp got plenty of support from his teammates. Sandhills broke into the scoring column in the third inning when Bret Norbury, Will Carpenter and VanCamp scored.

Sandhills added three runs in the fourth inning and six in the sixth inning. Carpenter and Andrew Ring scored once in each of those innings, while Barry Guin, Drew Harrison, Jordan Johnstone, Phillip Fish and Mario Messana added single runs.

Johnstone took the mound for Sandhills in the game with Rockingham, and pitched a solid six innings.

He allowed three runs in the third and one in the sixth, while Sandhills punched across two runs in the second inning to take an early 2-0 lead. Johnstone and Matt McBrayer scored the Sandhills runs.

The toughest inning for Sandhills was the third. After Rockingham scored three times to take a 3-2 lead, Sandhills had two runners thrown out at home in the bottom of the inning.

Sandhills threatened in the fourth inning, getting runners to second and third with two outs, but couldn’t score.

The Sandhills all-star team is coached by David Carpenter, John Wilson and Andy White.

The tournament is one of four section tournaments being played in North Carolina.