RALEIGH — If there's one area the Green Hope baseball team knew it had to improve on going into this year, it was winning the close ones.

The Falcons dropped nine one-run contests last year to finish 12-13 overall and needed a one-game playoff against Lee County just to get into the NCHSAA postseason.

This year, Green Hope has been knocking the close games out of park and they continued that trend against Athens Drive on Friday in a 2-1 win.

And with wins over the Jaguars and Apex on back-to-back days, the ability to win the close ones has Green Hope (14-2, 6-0) undefeated in Tri-Eight play and first in the conference standings.

"This year we're winning those one-run games so far. It's a fine line," coach Mike Miragliuolo said.

The Jaguars loaded the bases in the bottom of the seventh, but Green Hope's Joe Pistacchio got Wyatt Medlin to hit into a close 6-3 ground-out to end the game.

It wasn't the first time on the day where Green Hope's left side of the infield bailed out the rest of the team.

Third baseman Nolan Poythress and shortstop Eric Brady, a Duke signee, displayed great range, powerful arms and brilliant glove play as they turned in nine ground-outs for the Falcons.

Both players also had some "web gems" on diving defensive stops that kept Athens off the basepaths and the scoreboard.

"Their infield did a great job. I know that throughout the game Brady and the third baseman made some plays that would've been hits," Athens coach Joey Bell said.

"That last one that Wyatt Medlin hit, [Brady] makes a nice play on that and that may have went through too, I don't know, it was a nice play. But the one he made on Woodall up the middle [to end the fifth inning with two men on base] would've been through, and it saved probably two runs and we would've been up 3-1 and eventually 3-2."

Green Hope scored the first in the second inning after a throwing error on a pick-off by Athens pitcher Blair Betts allowed Jonathan Grudee to advance from second to third. In the same at-bat, center fielder Grant Shambley drove in Grudee on a two-out single.

The Jags responded in the fourth, when right fielder Michael King hit a RBI-double that scored designated hitter Ross Snotherly from second.

In the fifth, the Falcons loaded the bases on a Shambley single and two consecutive walks (one intentional and the other not) for Adam Boghosian.

Boghosian, who picked up the win as the Falcons' starting pitcher, lifted a ball into left field that was just far enough to score Shambley on a sacrifice fly. Shambley came into home standing up, but was nearly tagged by catcher Drew Woodall, who sold the play at the plate.

"If we do this one more time, obviously we'll win [the Tri-Eight] but everyone in the conference is real good so every game is tough," Shambley said. "We've got to play like this every day."

Three Athens pitchers combined to strikeout 11 Falcon batters, including starting pitcher Blair Betts, who had seven. Green Hope's 4-9 batters went 1-for-15 and accounted for nine of the strikeouts, causing Miragliuolo to call his team's plate discipline a concern.

"We had 10 [against Apex], so that's what we've been talking about and working on and we're just going to find people in the lineup who will put the ball in play," Miragliuolo said. "It's happening game after game, we're still finding ways to win but it's going to catch up to us eventually."

Leading the way for Athens was Woodall, a Charleston Southern signee, who went 2-for-3 with a walk, and second baseman Will Smith who went 2-for-4.

On Sunday, Green Hope hosted the third annual Matt Cossa Memorial, which included a silent auction, raffle prizes and a baseball game against Southeast Raleigh.

The event is named after the former Green Hope baseball player who died of Hodgkin's disease at the age of 20 while a student at UNC. Cossa was a four-year starter for the baseball team and was on the first team the Falcons fielded 10 years ago.

For the third consecutive year, Green Hope defeated Southeast Raleigh in the event, this time 10-0 in five innings.