When Currituck and Northeastern meet on the softball diamond, a tense game is the usual result. Emotions run high as the teams battle for position in the Northeastern Coastal Conference.

Not so on Thursday.

Brett A. Clark/The Daily Advance (ENLARGE)

Currituck (left) and Northeastern softball players prepare to eat Thursday during a cookout between five-inning doubleheaders.

Brett A. Clark/The Daily Advance (ENLARGE)

Northeastern's Anna Pierce throws to first baseman Hannah Chappell for an out during game one Thursday against Currituck.

The two teams played a pair of five-inning games to prepare for the playoffs under a more friendly atmosphere.

"(Currituck) coach (Karen) Booker and I talked about playing a couple of five-inning games with a cookout in the middle and letting the girls actually get along as friends instead of always being competitors," Northeastern coach Chuck Wimpey said. "It worked out great. It's a lot better than practice — you get to see some different pitching, you get ground balls and you get different play situations in the game. It works out good for both teams."

The first game of the evening pitted the two teams' starters against each other. After a cookout, the teams played again with a fresh set of players.

"We got both groups playing," Booker said. "You never know when you'll need that extra runner or extra fielder if somebody gets hurt. It gave a good chance for everybody to play."

Both coaches believed playing the games was better for the players than going through the motions in practice, and the players agreed.

"I thought it was really good," Northeastern's Anna Pierce said. "I thought it was a lot better than practice. I thought we got a lot more practice out of it than just taking infield, so I thought it was really good."

Booker believes the event could have been, or could be in the future, a whole lot bigger

"Our whole conference, I think we could have had all of us out here and had a fun time," she said. "Our conference gets along real well — all of the coaches do. It's a nice thing to think about doing again, because a lot of us are in the playoffs and you can only practice against each other for so long and it gets kind of boring."

Wimpey stated that Northeastern would love to do it again next year at Currituck "so they can cook next time."

The first contest was a pitchers' duel between Northeastern's Caroline Umphlett and Currituck's Erin Buchan, with the Lady Eagles winning, 1-0. Umphlett tossed a no-hitter and Buchan nearly kept pace, allowing only two hits. Northeastern held off a late rally to win the second dame, 8-3.

Other teams have been preparing for the postseason by playing extra games as well. Edenton played host to Camden on Wednesday, defeating the visitors, 2-1.

Edenton's Kelly Patrick struck out seven and allowed six hits. Camden's Kristin Cochran gave up four hits and struck out five.

"This was a nice tune-up for us heading into the playoffs," Camden coach Jeff Beyel stated. "We know how good Edenton is and we were geared up for a high-level game. Kristen pitched a tremendous game and our defense played extremely well."

The state softball playoffs begin Tuesday.