Snow Hill Holds Off Wayne 8-7

Note: Statistics will be posted Wednesday evening.

It didn't take long for Snow Hill Post 94 to put Wayne County Post 11 in a big hole Tuesday night at Mount Olive College in a battle of unbeaten American Legion teams.

The visitors bolted to a big lead, then fought off a late surge by Wayne to win 8-7. It was Snow Hill's first Area I East South Division game while Wayne fell to 1-1 and 4-1 overall. Wayne will take the rest of the week off before playing host to New Bern Monday night.

Wayne coach Brad Reaves pointed out that it was the type of game in which Wayne hit the ball well but didn't get as much as might have been expected. "We hit 6-7 right at them," he said. "We can't hit it better.We just dug a hole."

TJ Hinson, who went the distance in the season opener against Garner, didn't have much success locating his pitches, and the Post 94 lineup made him pay for it with four first-inning runs. Snow Hill added four more in the fifth against Taylor Bullard with the help of three ground ball singles. The highlight of the inning for Wayne came when it turned a triple play.

Wayne got on the scoreboard against Snow Hill starter Drew Sowers in the fifth. Jackson Massey had a leadoff hit and went to third on a single by Garrett Davis. John Wooten's infield hit scored Massey, and the runners advanced on a passed ball. A big inning appeared in the making, but in the blink of an eye things turned against Wayne as Sowers grabbed Tyler Ham's liner and doubled the runner off third. A grounder ended the threat.

Wayne came back strong in the seventh despite the setback. Dave Overman doubled to left on the first pitch, and Sowers hit Alex Casey. That was it for the Snow Hill starter, Robert Tyndall replaced him.

Will Edgerton sent a 3-1 fastball into the left field corner for two runs. Walker Gourley reached on an infield hit while Edgerton took third on the bad throw to first. But bad luck again found Post 11 as Gourley was hit going to second on Massey's apparent hit to right.

Garrett Davis brought in Edgerton with a fly ball to right. John Wooten then brought the crowd to its feet by smashing a changeup well over the fence in left to cut the lead to two.

Brandon Price, meanwhile, was doing a stellar job in relief by holding Snow Hill scoreless the rest of the way and allowing Wayne to rally. He allowed two hits and two walks in five innings.

After stranding two in the eight, Wayne again threatened in the ninth. Gourley's leadoff walked spelled the end of Tyndall. Right fielder Jordan Corbett took his place and got a quick strikeout. Gourley advanced on a wild pitch and scored on a bad hop single to right by Davis.

Davis stole second as Wooten struck out on a 3-2 pitch to get in scoring position, but Corbett fanned pinch-hitter Zack Wright to end the game.

In the first, Justin Bayley led off the game with a single, and Tray Beaman doubled off an 0-2 pitch to put runners on second and third. Hunter Chase's grounder resulted in an error, allowing two runs to score. Will Rhem doubled home a run, and Lance Murray finished the scoring with an RBI single through the left side of the infield.

Bud Robertson had the big hit in the fifth against with a two-run single up the middle on the ground. Tyler Chase added a run-scoring hit.

Snow Hill still had the bases loaded after Chase drove in a run. Mike Speed then hit a grounder to shortstop Gourley, who tagged second and fired to first for the second out. Murray tried to score on the play but was cut down at the play for the third out.

Snow Hill.........Ab...R...H...BI..........Wayne.............AB...R...H...BI
Bayley..2b.......4...1...2...0.................Edgerton..rf.....5...1...4...2
Beaman..ss......5...2...2...0................Gourley..s.........4...1...2...0
HChase..3b.....5...2...2...1..................Massey..cf........5...2...2...0
Rhem..dh........3...2...1...1..................Rose..dh............2...0...0...0
Johnson..rf......0...0...0...0................Davis..dh...........2...0...2...2
Robertson..lf...5...1...1...2..................Wooten..1b.......5...1...3...3
Murray..c........3...0...2...1..................Ham..c..............5...0...0...0
TChase..1b......3...0...1...1..................Wright..ph........1...0...0...0
Speedy..cf.......3...0...0...0..................Pilkington..3b..3...0...0...0
Corbett..rf,p....4...0...1...0.................Gurley..2b........1...0...0...0
........................_________...............Casey..lf............2...1...0...0
.........................35...8...12...6.............................______________
...............................................................................37...7...14...7

Snow Hill......400...040...000-8...12...1
Wayne .........000...001...501-7...14...1

E-Gurley, Beaman. DP-Snow Hill 1, Wayne 2. TP-Wayne 1. LOB-Snow Hill7, Wayne 8.
2B-Beaman 2, Rhem. Gurley, Edgerton. HR-Wooten. SB-Davis. CS-Bayley. SF-Davis.

.............................IP..H..R..ER..BB..SO
Snow Hill
Sowers (W).........6...8...3...3...1...2
Tyndall................2...5...4...4...1...2
Corbett................1...1...0...0...0...3
Wayne
Hinson(L)...........3...6...4...3...2...1
Bullard................1...4...4...4...1...0
Price....................5...2...0...0...2...1
WP-Hinson, Price, Sowers. PB-Murray. HBP-Rhem (by Bullard), Murray (by Bullard),
Casey (by Sowers), Casey (by Tyndall.)