Ryan Morris of North Kingstown scores on a bases-loaded triple by Mark Moran in the second inning yesterday.

The Providence Journal / Bob Breidenbach

SOUTH KINGSTOWN — North Kingstown coach Kevin Gormley will be the first to tell you that in baseball, sometimes it’s better to be patient than aggressive.

And sometimes it’s better to get timely hits than the most hits.

Gormley’s philosophy rang true yesterday. North Kingstown was patient at the plate. The Skippers drew 13 walks and three other batters were hit by pitches, so it didn’t matter that North Kingstown was outhit by South Kingstown, 9-7.

All of those runners added up to a 13-5 North Kingstown victory at Old Mountain Field in a battle for early Division I-South supremacy.

“We’ve had some success here in the past, but it’s a battle every time,” Gormley said. “We were fortunate today, but it’s always a dogfight . . . I was really happy today with our defensive effort. We’ve been really making a lot of errors and today we really buttoned it defensively, so that’s what I was really happy with today.”

North Kingstown (4-2) jumped ahead of South Kingstown (4-3) and into first place in Division I-South.

“You have to give credit to North Kingstown,” South Kingstown coach James Sauro said. “They were patient. They had 13 walks, three hit-batsmen, and that gets to you when you have a freshman on the mound. We had a couple of costly errors there, too . . . We gave them all of those runs. We left a lot of base runners on, too.”

Nate Izzo (2 RBI) had three of North Kingstown’s seven hits. Ryan Stone (2 RBI) and James McKinney each had two hits for South Kingstown.

North Kingstown loaded the bases with none out in the top of the first inning before the Rebels got the Skippers to ground into a 6-4-3 double play. Matt Rhieu scored on the play to give North Kingstown a 1-0 lead.

South Kingstown responded with three runs in the bottom of the inning. After Jackson Geary drove in Timothy Jackson with a single to right field, William Frost blasted a two-run double to deep center field, scoring Geary and McKinney.

South Kingstown’s pitching fell apart in the top of the second. Ryan Morris began the inning with a 345-foot solo home run over the fence in right-center field. Moran and Nick Savickas were both hit by pitches and advanced a base on Rhieu’s sacrifice. Izzo drove in both runners with a single up the middle.

South Kingstown intentionally walked two-time All-Stater Jeff Cammans (0-2, 3 walks) and then walked David D’Errico to load the bases. Izzo scored on a wild pitch before Jamale Horn walked to load the bases again.

Cammans scored on a balk and Cody Normand walked to keep the bases full. Moran then cleared the bases with a two-out, three-run triple down the right-field line.

“I thought that was the hit of the game,” Gormley said. “Moran stepped in and made every play at third base and he got that bases-loaded triple. I think that was the play of the game.”

Moran scored on a passed ball to extend North Kingstown’s advantage to 10-3.

Stone plated Brian Lessard and Zachary Johnson with a two-run single up the middle to cut North Kingstown’s lead to 10-5, but the Skippers added three more runs in the top of the seventh.

“I’m proud of my guys,” Sauro said. “We hung in there. We fought. We played hard but we are going to have to go back to the basics — hitting, fielding and pitching. We are going to work hard and we’ll be back.”

roblee@projo.com