HOLLY SPRINGS — The Apex baseball team advanced to the second round of the NCHSAA baseball playoffs with a 12-1 victory over host Holly Springs on Friday.

The Cougars (15-7), the No. 3 seed from the Tri-Eight Conference, are now scheduled to play at Durham Riverside on Tuesday.

Apex scored eight runs in the fourth inning to break open a close game. The Golden Hawks trailed 2-1 entering the frame but following five Apex base hits and a few costly mistakes found themselves trailing 10-1 going into the fifth.

“It’s a game of inches for sure,” said Apex head coach Mike Valder. “Holly Springs is a very talented team and on a given night it could have gone either way.

“We’ve just had a lot of momentum lately.”

Ryne Frankoff had the key hit of the game in the fourth inning. His bloop single into right field with two outs scored both Christian Rholl and Ben Scerri to make the score 5-1 Apex.

Then following an intentional walk to winning pitcher Houston Hawley, N.C. State-bound Chris Diaz singled, driving in Sean Buchanan and Frankoff to give the Cougars a 7-1 advantage.

Errors and two wild pitches allowed Kyle Tighe, Diaz and Taylor Gitlin to add to the Apex lead. Gitlin, who led the wild inning off with a base hit, scored twice in the fourth.

Buchanan, Frankoff, Hawley and Rholl each had two base hits for the Cougars. Hawley, who is bound for Cornell University to play football, allowed just three Golden Hawk base hits.

“Give them credit, they got some clutch hits and made the plays,” said Holly Springs head coach Rod Whitesell, whose Golden Hawks defeated the Cougars 7-5 earlier in the season. “I’m encouraged by the season we had but we’ve got to keep getting better and get more mentally tough.”

Holly Springs finished the season 19-6 and posted the second-best record in the competitive Greater Neuse River conference just behind Smithfield Selma. It was just the third year of varsity play for the Golden Hawks and their second consecutive trip to the playoffs.

Kyle Byrd drove in senior Bryson Edwards for the lone Holly Springs run. Senior Carlos Rodon had two hits for the Golden Hawks, while sophomore pitcher Justin Manning took the loss but posted four strikeouts.