Wayne Rebounds To win at Snow Hill

Your humble correspondent sort of overslept, so I promise to post a box and the updated stats tonight.

With Brandon Price at the top of his game, Wayne County Post 11 cruised past Snow Hill Post 94 6-1 Wednesday night at Greene Central High School to set up an important Area I East South Division showdown Friday on the road with New Bern.

Wayne (4-2, 8-2) shook off the effects of Sunday's 12-9 loss to Pitt County 39 while Snow Hill finds itself fighting just to make the postseason playoffs.

Price, making his second start of the season, displayed his usual skill of not overpowering the opposition but rather keeping the batters off balance by effectively mixing his fastball, changeup and breaking pitches. He struck out just three but allowed a mere five hits and two walks in going the distance on 108 pitches. The Post 11 defense also backed him up with two double plays.

The only blot on his ledger came in the first when when leadoff batter Justin Bagley's popup fell untouched in the infield for an error. Two outs later, Taylor Sutton drove him home with a single to center.

The Post 11 defense would tighten up after that, and Price (2-0) would close the game with a flourish by retiring the final 10 batters.

Wayne finally broke through against Snow Hill starter Drew Sowers in the fifth. Thomas Pilkington got things going with a bad hop double up th e middle. tyler Ham moved him to third with an opposite-field double to left. Chad Gurley tied it on a grounder, and Walker Gourley put Wayne ahead for good with a two-out hit to center.

Gurley continued his best offensive game of the season with a run-scoring double in the sixth over the head of the right fielder to score Jay Rose.

Garrett Davis' leadoff single in the eighth finished Sowers, and Wayne took advantage reliever Matt Kennedy's control problems by drawing three walks, including one by Gurley with the bases loaded.

Alex Casey followed with a suicide squeeze, and he reached base when the ball was bobbled by the pitcher. Gourley's RBI grounder made it 6-1.