Wayne Blows Lead, Wins in Ten

Box is here. No. 2, your career and season leaders are here. Adron Hollowell got a hit last night even though he didn't play. Imagine that.

On an evening in which the wind helped to send five balls out of the park, Wayne County Post 11 blew a four-run lead in the final two innings, survived a near walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth and ran its winning streak to five games with a 12-8 ten-inning win over Pitt County Post 160 Sunday night at South Central High School in Winterville.

Wayne (4-3, 11-3) will step out of Area I East for the next four games before concluding the regular season Sunday at Kinston. The team can guarantee itself at least a tie for second in the South Division with a win over Post 43 and still has a chance of at least a share of the regular season title.

Wayne will play host to North Raleigh on Tuesday, then travel to Garner on Wednesday.

Post 11 held an 8-4 lead going into the eighth thanks to four home runs, including two by John Wooten. He had taken over on the mound in the seventh after starter Michael Douglas allowed seven hits and one earned run. But he quickly ran into trouble as Aarin Sharpe singled off the first pitch and Jordan Corbett came back from an 0-2 count to double to left. Sharpe scored on a wild pitch and a sacrifice fly by Will James cut the lead to two.

Wooten's breaking pitch again gave him trouble in the ninth. After Wayne left the bases loaded, Tanner Lovick and Josh Kozup walked. They advanced on another wild pitch, and Lovick scored on a sacrifice fly that flirted with the fence in right. Aarin Sharpe tied it on a ground ball hit to center. He advanced to second on Corbett's fourth hit but rounded the bag too far and was tagged out in a rundown. That would be Post 160's last gasp.

Alex Casey was hit by a pitch for the seventh time as he led off the tenth. One out later, Walker Gourley reached base in the same fashion. The count on Wooten went to 2-0 on a passed ball, and he received an intentional pass to load the bases for Jay Rose.

But Rose, who had hits in seven of his previous 14 at-bats, foiled that strategy with a two-run single up the middle for his third hit of the game. Wooten ended on third and scored on a sacrifice fly by Zach Wright. Lancaster followed an intentional walk to Thomas Pilkington with an RBI single through the right side of the infield.

Adron Hollowell easily set down Pitt in the bottom of the inning.

The first of Wooten's home runs came in the first on a 3-1 pitch. An inning later, Zach Wright led off with a homer to left on the first pitch for his fifth round-tripper. Pilkington followed him by likewise. Wooten homered with two out in the third, and Wayne added a pair in the fifth on a run-scoring single by Rose and an RBI groundout by Wright.

Pitt got three runs back in the sixth on a bloop two-run single to center by Will James and an RBI double by Steven McDonald.

In the Wayne eighth, Pilkington singled and Lancaster homered to center.