Through playoff heartbreaks, tough exits, long practices, offseason workouts and years of growing up together on the same baseball fields, they believed this moment would eventually come.

Jack Adams drew a bases-loaded walk in the bottom of the seventh inning to force home the winning run as the No. 2-seeded Eagles survived a wild offensive showdown with No. 5 Perquimans County, 20-19, in Game 1 of the N.C. High School Athletic Association 2A Eastern Regional Finals.