Wayne County weathers late Pitt County surge

By Cam Ellis
Published in Sports on July 9, 2015 1:48 PM

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DUDLEY -- After Wednesday night's game against Pitt County Post 39, Wayne County Post 11's players might need an additional ice pack or two.

Then again, the bumps and bruises are nothing that a win can't mend.

In typical fashion, Post 11 shrugged off early offensive struggles and put up the majority of its runs in one inning to beat Pitt County, 8-7, in Game 1 of their best-of-five Area I East semifinals.

Wayne County got on the board first, taking a 1-0 lead on an RBI groundout in the bottom half of the second inning. The lead wouldn't last, however, as Post 39 answered by scoring two in the top of the third off of starter Jake Naughton.

Post 11 responded with a key fifth inning.

It scored six runs on three hits, three walks and two hit batsmen and knocked Post 39 starter Tyler Sutton out of the game after only 42/3 innings. Wayne County had four players hit by a pitch on the night.

"Legion ball, to me, is really glorified high school baseball," Wayne County head coach Jason Sherrer said. "You have really good players, but it's still high school baseball in that sense. Anything can happen and nothing's over until it's over."

Wayne County put that theory to the test in the top of the ninth inning.

Naughton, who pitched eight stellar innings, was relieved by Eastern Wayne pitcher Tanner Wells to start the ninth. Wells walked the first two batters and gave up a single to Frankie Williamson.

Mo Blackwell doubled to cut Post 11's lead to 8-6.

With no outs, Sherrer replaced Wells with Bobby Hampton, who closed out the game for his second save of the season.

Despite the shaky bullpen outing, Sherrer remained confident in his team.

"I don't think it was a scare," he said. "The whole thing we talk about is 'don't play scared.' If I'm coaching scared or nervous, then they're going to do that and play into that.

"It was more just about putting our best foot forward in every situation. Naughton kept us in the ballgame for eight strong innings. I think he got into a groove and started feeling comfortable with some pitches."

The late-inning rally was little consolation for Pitt County.

"The walks and the hit-by-pitches (were the most disappointing)," Post 39 head coach Rodney Harris said. "We take those out, we win the game."

Game 2 is tonight at Pitt Community College. The teams return to Dudley on Friday, with back-to-back "if necessary" games penciled in for the weekend. Sherrer said his club is used to the grind of playing consecutive days.

"Actually, earlier in the season we played seven games in six days," Sherrer said. "We played those games with 11 guys and one game we played with nine. We've definitely played back-to-back-to-back and it's what we've been planning for this entire year."