Wayne County Escapes From Garner With Extra-Inning Win

For the second straight year, Wayne County Post 11 made a way out of no way and left Garner High School with a win over Garner Post 232.

Brad Reaves' team ran its record to 3-0 by escaping two late-inning jams and exploding for eight runs in the eleventh for a deceptive 14-6 victory over its Area I West opponent.

Jackson Massey sparked his team to victory with five hits, including a home run, and got the win by performing a couple of escape acts that would have done Houdini proud.

Wayne outhit Garner 22-12 but scored just five of 22 runners in the first nine innings. That almost led to a heartbreaking defeat.

Massey, the fifth Post 11 hurler, struck out the first two batters in the ninth with the score tied at five but gave up a double and a walk. To make matters worse, he advanced the runners with a wild pitch. He battled Jeremy Hall to a full count before retiring him on a popup to the mound.

Wayne snapped the tie in the tenth. Massey reached on a bunt single down the third base line, stole second and came home when John Wooten's hit to left was misplayed.

But trouble quickly found him in the home half of the inning. He got the first out on a liner to left, but pinch hitter Taylor Ryan singled up the middle, stole second and came in on a Hunter Smith double. Brian Clark doubled to shallow right, as Smith had to hold up at third because he had to make sure the ball fell in.

That left Massey facing pinch hitter Brad Buske. Massey rose to the challenge by fanning him on three pitches. Next up was leadoff batter Landon Adams, already with three hits. The plan was to "unintentionally" walk Adams on four pitches. The count ran to 3-0, and Adams lunged at a pitch off the plate for a fly ball to center to send the game to the eleventh.

As for what happened, Reaves said, "I think he wanted to win the ballgame." Instead of that, Garner saw Wayne County light up reliever Darren Tew for eight runs.

Tew got the leadoff batter on a groundout and went ahead of Conner Narron 0-2 before hitting him on the next pitch. Jay Rose hit an opposite-field double into the left field corner. Will Edgerton was intentionally walked to get to Walker Gourley, who had struck out three times.

Gourley lined a hit to left to score one run, and Massey drilled a first-pitch curveball to center to put the visitors ahead by three. After a forceout, Wayne strung together four more hits, including a two-run double by Dave Overman and a two-run single by Narron.

Wayne took the lead in the first on a solo home run by Massey and added two in the fifth on RBI hits by Tyler Ham and Rose. Garner tied it in the home half as Hall and Brian Sears had consecutive RBI doubles.

Wayne regained the lead with two in the sixth, but Corey Carver's two-run homer to left in the seventh again knotted the scored.

In last year's game, Wayne took a one-run lead into the ninth only to have Garner put runners on the corners with none out. Wayne got the lead runner out on a grounder to third baseman Thomas Pilkington, then put the game away when Pilkington started a third-to-first twin killer on another grounder.

Wayne AB R H BI Garner AB R H BI
Edgerton lf ...3 1 0 0.................. Adams cf...5 1 3 1
Gourley ss...7 1 2 1.................... Cole ss,2b...6 1 1 0
Massey rf,p,cf...7 4 5 3.............. Carver p,ss...5 2 2 3
Wooten 1b, p...7 2 3 1 .................Hall 1b...6 1 2 1
Ham c...3 1 1 1..............................Sears lf...5 0 1 1
Wright c...3 1 2 0 .........................Delaria rf...2 0 0 0
Lancaster cf...6 1 3 1 ..................Ryan ph...1 1 1 0
Overman 3b...6 1 1 2.................. Smith 3b...5 0 1 1
Gurley 2b...2 0 1 0 ......................Clark c...5 0 1 0
Narron 2b...4 1 1 2 .......................Bingham 2b...2 0 0 0
Casey dh...1 0 0 0 ........................Howell p...2 0 0 0
Rose p,1b,rf...5 1 3 1.................... Buske ph...1 0 0 0
___________ ______________
54...14...22...13 ...........................................45...6...12...6

Wayne 100 022 000 1 8 - 14...22...1
Garner 000 030 200 10 - 6...12...5

E-Adams, Overman, Howell, Cole, Sears. LOB-Wayne 16, Garner 11.
2B-Hall, Sears, Wright, Cole, Smith, Clark, Rose, Overman. HR-Massey,
Carver. SB-Adams, Massey, Delaria. CS-Lancaster. S-Edgerton.

......................IP H R ER BB SO
Wayne
Grice.............. 2...1...0...0...1...0
Hinson ...........2...1...0...0...1...2
Rose ...............2...4...3...3...0...4
Wooten ...........2...1...2...2...3...0
Massey (W)....2 1/3...4...1...1...1...3
Lancaster.......2/3...1...0...0...0...0
Garner
Carver ............5...8...3...2...3...3
Howell ............5...7...3...3...1...6
Tew(L)........... 1...7...8...8...1...0
WP-Massey. PB-Clark. HBP-Edgerton (by Carver), Delaria (by Hinson), Adams (by
Wooten), Lancaster (by Howell), Narron (by Tew.)