Snow Hill ends Wayne County's five-game win streak

By Gabe Whisnant
Published in Sports on June 12, 2005 2:07 AM

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MOUNT OLIVE -- An early-season learning experience.

Wayne County coach Brad Reaves hopes that is how his Post 11 team will react after a dissapointing performance in a 2-0 loss at home to Snow Hill on Saturday night on the second day of the Wayne County Invitational.

The loss sends Wayne County into a 4 p.m. contest today against Jacksonville, which it defeated 4-0 on Friday. Post 94 will oppose Fuquay-Varina at 7 p.m. Duplin County takes on Wilmington Post 10 at 1 p.m.

Post 11 committed an uncharacteristic four errors -- two of them leading to a pair of unearned runs for Snow Hill, which managed only a season-low, three hits against Wayne County starter Adam Williams and reliever Matthew Holloman.

Post 94 pushed across its first run in the second, before tacking on an insurance run in the seventh.

In the second inning, Brad Bagley reached on a one-out walk, then moved to third on Lance Murray's single to left. With two outs and Matthew Tyndall at the plate, Murray raced for second on a steal attempt as the throw from the catcher sailed into center field -- allowing Bagley to cruise home for the first run.

Williams allowed only three more base runners in innings two through six, none reaching on hits. The left-handed, Charles B. Aycock graduate yielded only two hits total in six innings of work, while walking three with three strikeouts in a hard-luck loss.

"He got better as the game went. He fell behind early, and it's tough to keep a team off the scoreboard when you fall behind," said Reaves. "But, he hasn't been on the mound much, either. He's getting back to the Adam he was early in the year last year."

Matthew Holloman, a Southern Wayne graduate, struck out the first batter he faced looking to start the seventh. Whitley then reached on an error by the first baseman, moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Matthew Tyndall and raced to third on a wild pitch. Holloman appeared to be out of the jam, but Jordan Scott legged out a soft ground ball to second as Whitley scampered home to make it 2-0.

"If we don't learn from this, we need to pack it up right now. We've got to learn that you have to come to the yard every day ready to play," Reaves said. "We're either going to either be a very good team because we come ready to play, or we are going to be a mediocre team because we don't."

Snow Hill (5-3) looked as it they would get another run in the seventh when another throwing error on Jordan Scott's steal attempt went into center. Scott was eventually cut down on a perfectly executed set of relay throws from center fielder Garrett Sutton to shortstop Jes Snyder to Bennett Jeffreys at the plate.

"There wasn't a whole lot of hitting. It was a non-conference game, but still a good game to win," Snow Hill coach James "Rabbit" Fulghum said. "Both teams made a couple of boots, but that's part of baseball."

Wayne County (7-2) had only five hits against Post 94 starter Richie Turner, who combined with Jordy Davis for Snow Hill's first shutout of the season. Post 11 left five stranded, including three at third base in a game where they struggled to get the clutch hit with runners on base.

Wayne County compounded its offensive woes by failing to get two sacrifice bunt attempts down with no outs in the second and fifth innings, respectively.

"It's all in how you prepare to play this game. I'm not upset that we lost, but I'm upset with the effort. There was no effort whatsoever," Reaves said. "We should never make that many errors. We had some opportunities to get some bunts down, but I don't think they understand the kind of lift it can give you when you do the little things.

"You aren't always going to get three hits in a row, but you might get a ball in the dirt or get a bunt down to eventually score."

Post 11's Jes Snyder smacked his fourth double of the season off the left-field fence with one out in the sixth -- chasing Turner from the game. Davis came on to enduce a pair of ground outs to get out of the jam, then pitched a perfect seventh to finish off the save.

"We've been trying to find a closer, so I think we are going to turn it over to him," Fulghum said. "We've lost two games this year that I think we could have won if we had someone who could close them out."

Austin Hood, Airlon Vinson, Jesse Lancaster and Bennett Jeffreys all singled for Wayne County, which suffered its first loss in the month of June.

Notes: Snow Hill avenged a 4-2 loss to Post 11 last Sunday. ... Both starters, Turner and Williams, were making their second appearances of the season. ... Wayne County will return to Area I East action on Monday at Pitt County 160, before traveling to Wilson County on Tuesday.