In three games, the Bengals have allowed just five runs.

Ranked No. 10 in the Impact Baseball preseason poll, Fuquay kept its unbeaten record intact thanks to another strong night on the mound as it defeated visiting Panther Creek 2-1 on Thursday night.

The Catamounts (2-4), were held to five hits, including two infield singles, by Fuquay pitchers Garrett Suggs and Clint Williams.

Williams worked the sixth and seventh innings to pick up the win.

“When I’m coming in to close like that, I really just gas it up and throw real hard,” said Williams, who allowed one hit and struck out three. “(The pitchers) have been doing really well, throwing strikes and just getting people out.”

The Fuquay bats were kept cold for most of the night, scattering their seven hits and leaving four runners in scoring position. The Bengals (3-0, 2-0) did get on the board first in the bottom of the second as No. 9 hitter Lucas Scott drove in Deuce Johnson (2-for-3) with an RBI double.

“We’re missing the at-bats in a game situation to get to hopefully we’ll hit the ball better than we have. That’s really the only thing that’s lacking,” said Fuquay coach Milton Senter. “We’ve got enough pitching. We may not have great pitching, but we’ve got good pitching.”

The Catamounts also scored their first run on an two-out RBI by a second baseman, as Dan D’Elia (2-for-2) singled in a run in the top of the fourth.

But the game changed in the bottom of the fifth, when Fuquay loaded the bases thanks to a walk to Garrett Suggs, Kirk Stephenson’s grounder to third that was mishandled by Trevor Howard and an intentional walk to Addison Braswell.

PC starting pitcher Nathan Harris was facing Fuquay sophomore D.J. Burt when he looked back at second to see Stephenson taking a large lead.

“That’s a play we do with two outs and two strikes,” Senter said. “But as it turns out, we didn’t have to draw a throw.”

Caught in between deciding whether or not to deliver the next pitch or to try and pick off the runner, Harris flinched. A balk was called, and all the runners advanced one base -- including Suggs from third. A few pitches later, Burt struck out to end the inning.

It was Panther Creek’s third one-loss run of the young season.

“The little mistakes are what’s getting us right now,” Hall said. “We’ve just got a really ambitious group that looks for opportunities, and you can’t fault that.”

Senter said PC had “turned the corner this season.” Fuquay is off to an unbeaten start, but the Bengals know it will be another tough season in the Tri-Nine Conference, whether or not the pitching sustains its current level of play.

“They’ve got a good team,” Senter said of PC, “and so does everybody else. It’s a brutal league.”