Wayne Rallies for Split with Ahoskie

Season totals later today. I'll have a playoff preview on Tuesday.

Check out this photo on the front page of NC Preps


First Game

Second Game

14 Game Totals

15 Game Totals


Ahoskie Post 102 had a one-run lead on Wayne County Post 11 in the second game of their American Legion non-conference doubleheader at Mount Olive College Saturday afternoon when Tyler Edwards led off the sixth with a double. Next up was John Wooten, who already had six hits in seven at-bats. Wooten drew an intentional pass. Not a bad strategy, considering that Wooten had hit a 400 foot-plus home run in his previous plate appearance.

But the guy behind him is no slouch, either. Cambric Moye came through with his third hit of the game to tie it, and Cody Richards followed one out later with an RBI single as Wayne went on to win 7-6 and salvage a split. Ahoskie cranked out 16 hits in the opener on its way to a 7-4 victory.
Wayne (9-6) will open the Area I East playoffs at home Tuesday against Edenton in a best-of-five series. Ahoskie, which finished fourth in the North Division, will face the loser of tonight's Kinston-New Bern game.

In the second game, the top of the Post 11 order had its most productive game of the season after coach Brad Reaves reconfigured the lineup. Edwards, Wooten and Moye combined to score all of the Wayne runs, produced nine hits and drove in seven runs.

Wooten reached on an infield hit in the first and scored on Moye's double to the left-center field gap. Edwards and Wooten singled with two out in the second, worked a double steal and came home on a ground ball single to left by Moye for a 3-3 tie.

Wooten followed a one-out double by Edwards in the third with a massive shot to center off a first-pitch breaking ball to make it 5-4. Ahoskie again tied it in the fifth on consecutive doubles by Kyle Hayes and Dylan Rouse, then went ahead in the sixth.

Edwards went to the mound that inning but couldn't duplicate his success at the plate as he walked the leadoff batter and gave up a double to Edward Joyner. Wooten relieved him, and Aaron Hoggard drove in the go-ahead run with a hit to left. Ahoskie later failed on a suicide squeeze to help Wayne get out of the inning. Post 11 then make its comback.

In the opener, Ahoskie put together four hits in the first for two runs, then added three in the second. Haggard, who had six hits for the afternoon, drove in two runs with a two-out single through the left side of the infield. It was the beginning of a trend in which the visitors hit the ball where the defense wasn't.

"I thought we were in Texas with the Texas Leaguers," said Wayne coach Brad Reaves. "They didn't hit but about two hard .... And if we'd been playing back at (Southern Wayne High School) we would have had about six home runs. Tyler Edwards hit two or three that would have been out, but you live and die at Scarborough."

Wayne got two runs back in the third. Josh Frederick walked, Edwards doubled and Nick McGee walked to load the bases with none out. That set up the potential for a big inning, but it didn't happen. Wooten hit into a force play, and Scott Holloman hit a sacrifice fly for the second run.

Richards hit a solo home run in the fourth to make it 6-3. Ahoskie led by four going into the seventh but had to hold off a late rally. After the first two batters went down on fly balls, Wooten smashed a triple to center. Holloman reached on an error as Wooten scored. Moye kept Wayne alive with a hit to center but reliever Brent Bowen ended the game with a strikeout.

Wayne went 22-for-55 in the two games, Reaves said his players couldn't get the hits at the right time. "The problem was that we couldn't string the hits together, the big ones. Then we couldn't get a stop."

Ahoskie did even better in the hit column with 27. "I thought it was their day, especially with some of (the hits.) I thought Matt Neal was okay. Taylor (Allen) didn't have good stuff, but I think it was a combination. I think it was their day and our pitching was not real sharp."