New Bern cools off Snow Hill

By Gabe Whisnant
Published in Sports on June 22, 2005 1:47 PM

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SNOW HILL -- Coming into Tuesday's home game with New Bern, Snow Hill's American Legion team had averaged 10 runs per contest during a seven-game winning streak.

A pair of hard-throwing, Post 24 pitchers -- Adam Warren and Sean Noble -- provided the antidote to cool down the Post 94 bats.

Both college commitments, the right-handed Warren and the lefty Nobles combined for 12 strikeouts as New Bern claimed a 1-0 win in a pitcher's duel at the James R. Fulghum Athletic Complex.

Snow Hill (9-4 overall) fell to 6-4 in Area I East play heading into a road contest today at Beaufort County. Post 24 improved to the same 6-4 mark overall and in the division.

Warren (1-0), a University of North Carolina signee, finished with 10 strikeouts against three walks in seven innings of work, yielding only two hits during his stint.

Snow Hill squandered a golden opportunity to scratch against the righty during the seventh. Blake Taylor wedged a single between walks issued to John Conway and Brad Bagley -- loading the bases with no outs. Facing the bottom of the Post 94 order, Warren struck out the side on 13 pitches -- setting all three hitters up with his fastball, then retiring him with breaking pitches to get out of the jam.

Post 94, who stranded nine on the game, had base runners in the first three innings with less than no outs, before Warren tossed a trio of perfect innings in the fourth, fifth and sixth.

"Their pitcher is pretty good. He's a quality pitcher. I knew it would be a low-scoring game if we could pitch well," Snow Hill coach James "Rabbit" Fulghum said. "We had runners on base in the first three innings and didn't score. That hurts just as much as leaving the bases loaded in the seventh. It's just not as fresh in your memory."

Facing the Louisburg College signee Noble, Snow Hill got a two-out single by Drew Sowers in the ninth, then Matthew Whitley drew a walk to put the tying run on second. The southpaw closed out the shutout and picked up the save as Lance Murray grounded out to first for the final out.

Ayden-Grifton product Richie Turner was up to the task on the mound for Post 94 -- matching Warren frame-for-frame. The right-hander was perfect through 41/3, pitching seven scoreless innings with command of the strike zone. Turner walked none with three strikeouts and gave up just four hits.

"Snow Hill did a lot better job of putting it in play than we did in the early innings. The kid for them had a perfect game through four innings," New Bern coach Gary Smith said. "You saw four guys tonight that were quality arms. There's not going to be a lot of hitting, and you've got to capitalize when you get a shot."

New Bern scratched for its only run against Turner (1-1) and reliever Jordy Davis in the top of the eighth. Lemmie Barwick started the inning with a single to center, then moved to second when Noble's sacrifice bunt was fielded and tossed into center field by Turner trying to cut down Barwick. Another sacrifice by Chris Seitz moved the runners up one more base as Fulghum brought Davis in to face the top of the order.

Mike O'Connor executed a squeeze-bunt on Davis' third pitch to bring home Barwick to make it 1-0. The run, charged to Turner, proved to be unearned. O'Connor reached on the play when Davis' throw to first on the bunt was bobbled by the first baseman.

The right-hander escaped the eighth with no further damage and pitched a scoreless ninth, getting some help from his defense. Snow Hill second baseman Hunter Chase cut down Noble at the plate on a double-steal attempt in the eighth, while center fielder Brandon Brown tossed a strike to the catcher Murray to get Dan Thomas trying to score from third on a fly ball by Noble to end the top of the ninth.

"I'm proud of our pitching staff. It's been very good all year," Fulghum said. "We messed up on the bunt situation, but we had as good a throw-and-catch on the double-steal as you are going to have at this level. Then we had a great play to end the game in center.

"I'm proud of where we are at the present time. We just need to work hard to get a position favorable for the playoffs."

Chase, Taylor and Sowers had the only hits for Post 94, while Chris Watson had two hits, including a double for New Bern. Chris Seitz added one double.

Notes: Snow Hill plays three of its next four on the road -- Wednesday at Beaufort; Friday vs. Wilson; Saturday at Pitt County 160; Sunday at Pitt County 39. New Bern travels to Pitt 160 on Friday, then goes to Wilson on Saturday.