Richards Powers Post 11 to Road Win

Box Three Game Totals

Note: Four-game totals perhaps later today. I hope the links are working.

Wayne County's American Legion team will get a big talent boost when Eastern Wayne finishes its quest for a 3-A title, but the players filling in are doing quite nicely as it is, thank you.

Cody Richards drove in four runs with a a home run and a triple, and a quartet of hurlers combined on a four-hitter as Post 11 downed Apex Post 124 8-3 Wednesday night at Apex High School to run its record to 3-1. Wayne will play host to Wilmington Post 10 Friday night at Mount Olive College, then travel to the Port City for a 4 p.m. contest on Saturday. The Sunday game with New Bern will be rescheduled.

Wayne had only seven hits but bunched them together to make for a more productive night. In the first inning, Matt Neal reached on an infield hit, and Nick McGee walked with two out. Davis got ahead 3-0, took a strike and belted a fastball over the 365-foot mark in center field.

Neal got Post 11 going in the third with a leadoff single up the middle. Scott Holloman was hit by a pitch, and McGee drilled a pitch to left to score a run. The next two batters struck out, but Keenan Winn make it 6-0 with a two-run single to center after the runners had advanced on a passed ball.

McGee singled with one out in the fifth, and Richards tripled him home. An RBI ground out by Zack Grantham put Post 11 on top 8-2.

Wayne coach Brad Reaves pulled up Will Broadwell from the junior Legion, and the right-hander made the most of his start by retiring all nine batters he faced.

Apex scored twice in the fourth on a two-out single by Jason Turpin. A hit batter and a run-scoring single by Drew Davis accounted for the other run. The teams agreed to play seven innings.

The absence of the Eastern Wayne contingent has provided some of the younger players with opportunities to make cases for themselves and, in the process, give Reaves pleasant problems when it comes to roster decisions. That's especially true at catcher. Zack Wright (East Carolina) and Cambric Moye (Eastern Wayne) were expected to shoulder the duties behind the plate, with Nick McGee a mere stopgap until those two arrived. It hasn't worked out that way as Reaves has been impressed by his work as a hitter and a backstop.

"I wasn't counting on him," said Reaves, "but if he keeps on swinging it like that you just never know. He's going to stay up here until we get somebody back, and then it's going to be a hard decision."