New Bern Advances To Area I East Final

New Bern Post 24 will face Wayne County for the second straight year in the Area I East final. Wayne swept the 2007 series.

EDENTON - New Bern Post 24 won a decisive Game 5 over Post 40 at Historic Hicks Field on Saturday, 8-6, to advance to the third round of the American Legion state playoffs.
New Bern fired out to a 4-1 lead, but Edenton found its offense in the fourth inning. Austin Beasley drove in a run on a groundout, then Bryon Brown followed with a broken-bat, two-run home run to tie the score at 4-all.
Post 24 answered in the top of the fifth inning with three runs, two coming on a homer off the bat of Gabe Brown, to push the lead back to three.
That was all New Bern starting pitcher Chris Dorman needed. Dorman gutted his way through for a complete game, allowing 10 hits, four earned runs, walking five and striking out two.
"I think Chris had pitched four or five innings for us until tonight," New Bern coach Gary Smith said. "He competed and dodged bullets. He just made good pitches when he needed to."
Edenton had its chances in the later innings, loading the bases with one out in the fifth, putting two on with one out in the sixth and loading the bases again in the eighth. But Post 40 came up empty each time, stranding 11 runners on the night.
"I felt like if we threw strikes (we would be in the game) and we were able to make plays tonight," Smith said.
After scoring twice in its final at-bat, Edenton brought the potential tying run to the plate, but Post 40's season ended on a long fly ball to center field.