The Mathews High School varsity baseball team handily defeated the visiting West Point Pointers in Tuesday night’s post-season opener, 16-2, to advance to last night’s Tidewater District tournament championship against King William.

Mathews jumped on the scoreboard early with three runs in the first inning. The Devils continued to pour it on West Point with six more runs in the second inning, one in the fourth and six in the bottom of the fifth.

Fifteen hits were scattered across the boards for the Devils, and offensive standouts include multi-hit nights for Deondre Foster (three), Austin Kemp (three), Darian Beale (two), Paul Burnette (two) and Ryan Ewell (two). RBIs were dispersed across the Devils’ lineup as well, with Beale providing three of them, while Brian Owens, Brett Hogge, Foster, and Kemp each recorded two. Josh Wilson, Burnette, Ewell and Zach Jarosz joined them with one each.

Wilson started for the Devils on the mound, and went five strong inning...