Wayne Rallies Past Pitt 39

Box is here. The game with Edgecombe County is near C.B. Martin Middle School. Search Edgecombe County Schools for the address. Stats will come tomorrow.

Another Area I East South Division game, and another late-inning rally by Wayne County.

Zach Wright's leadoff home run provided the opening fireworks in a seven-run eighth inning as Post 11 surged past Pitt County Post 39 11-9 Thursday night at Southern Wayne High School. The results evened both teams' division records at 3-3. Wayne is 9-3 overall and will travel to Edgecombe County Saturday night for a non-division match up.

Wayne trailed by five runs going into the eighth and had managed only one earned run against Pitt starter Chase Hardee. He left after seven having allowed five hits and three walks. His replacement, Aaron Roberson, fell behind Wright 3-1 and served up a fastball that found the other side of the center field fence.

Thomas Pilkington reached on an error. One out later, Bryant Hill walked on four pitches and Alex Casey sent a bunt that hugged the third base line for a hit as the defense let it roll.

That loaded the bases for Tyler Edwards, and he drove a breaking pitch to left for two runs. With the runners breaking, Walker Gourley slapped a 2-1 fastball through the hole to right field to bring Wayne within one. John Wooten's fly ball to center tied it.

Jay Rose doubled to the fence in left centerfield to score Gourley from first and give Post 11 the lead. He went to third on a wild throw to the plate and scored on a passed ball.

Wooten, who had taken over the pitching duties in the eighth, retired the first two batters before Patrick Roy reached second on an infield hit and an error. Wooten ran the count full to Josh Hudson before retiring him on a grounder to Pilkington at third to complete the improbable comeback.

Wayne coach Brad Reaves didn't sound very happy as the winner. "Tonight we came with the attitude we had three games ago. We dragged around. We had our lips out. We got away from what we had been doing well at the plate. I don't know how many pitches we swung at tonight chest high and took ourselves out of it.

"We made some terrible two-strike pitches tonight. There's no telling how many hits they got tonight with two strikes. It was absolutely horrible." Pitt had five hits with the count either 0-2 or 1-2.

"Jay Rose was the only one who had an idea of what he wanted to do all night. He was the only one locked in."

Wayne starter Adron Hollowell walked two in the first but got out of trouble before Pitt lit him up for five in the fourth. With one out and runners on the corners, Tanner Merritt doubled down the third base line to tie it Hollowell walked Bobby Hannon on four pitches and got ahead of Patrick Roy 0-2. Three pitches later, with the count 1-2, Roy sent the bal over the center field fence for a 5-1 lead in Hollowell's last inning.

Wayne pulled within one in the home half. Pilkington's fly ball to center was dropped for an error, and Nolan Lancaster reached on an infield hit with one out. A run scored on a wild throwo on Bryant Hill's grounder to second to put runners on first and second. After a force out, Edwards reached on an error to load the bases. A wild pitch made it 5-3, and Gourley reached on an infield hit to close the lead to one. Edwards, who ended up at third was out in a run down after being picked off.

Michael Douglas took over on the mound and retired the first two batter in the fifth but a hit batter, an error, a walk and another hit batter extended the lead to two.

Pitt added three in the seventh. Hardee singled and Merritt doubled him to third with none out. Douglas struck out the next two batters looking only to have Hudson drill a breaking pitch to center for two runs. He scored on a hit by Ethan Powell.