After getting swept by Post 11 for the last three seasons, the Wilson County Post 13 team finally earned their revenge on Friday night when they defeated Wayne County 3-2.
The three-season sweep, which lasted for a total of six games, also included several one- sided victories by Post 11 over Wilson with their most recent coming in the form of a brutal 10-0 defeat of Post 13 on June 27. With that game in the back of many of the Wilson’s players’ minds, they came into the game with a strong will for revenge.
A win against the excellent Wayne County base program never comes easy though, and Post 11 starting pitcher Garrett Byrd came out throwing some of his best stuff—not allowing a single hit in the first two innings. Fortunately for Wilson, Post 13’s starting pitcher Landon Coleman also kept Wayne County hitless in the first two innings.
The game wouldn’t remain hitless forever though, and in the top of the third inning, Wayne County’s Lawson Tyndall earned the game’s first hit with a single. Tyndall was then replaced on the basepaths by Tanner Woodard who advanced to second during the next at-bat when Baines Raynor hit a sacrifice bunt. Woodard later came home to score during the same inning when Wyatt Lassiter hit a sacrifice fly.
In the bottom of the third inning, it seemed as if Byrd was going to keep his no hitter alive when he struck out the first two Wilson County batters of the inning, but with two outs, J. Flowers singled for his team’s first hit of the inning. During the next at-bat, he also came home to score thanks to a Nick Worrell double which tied the game at 1-1.
With the bats now heating up for both teams, Wayne County’s Connor Radford got the top of the fourth inning started off with a single, and he then advanced to second during the next at-bat with a steal, and then to third on a Drew Sweet groundout. He was unable to get home though as on the next play, Will Johnson groundout to the Wilson shortstop J.D. Graziani who made a great throw to home plate to tag out Radford at the plate.
After getting out of the of the inning unscathed, Wilson got off to a bad start in the bottom of the fourth inning when Brady Jenkins opened up the inning by grounding out. Wilson quickly turned things around though, and the next three batters got on base with back-to-back singles by Seth Evans and Ryan Bass and a walk by Gage Lockhart. With the bases loaded and just one out, Adyn Gooding hit a groundball to Wayne County second baseman Raynor which could have potentially resulted in an inning ending double play or at least an out at first, but Raynor was unable to field the ball cleanly, and Raynor reached first safely to score a run and keep the bases loaded.
Later in the inning with two outs and the bases still loaded, Jake Flowers hit a single to score Sutton McDonald from third and give Wilson a 3-1 lead. During the same play though, Wilson paid for their aggressiveness on the basepaths just as Wayne County did earlier in the game when Lockhart tried to reach home from second base but was thrown out by center fielder Wyatt Lassiter.
After holding Wayne County scoreless in the top of the fifth inning, Wilson once again paid for their aggressiveness on the basepaths when, after hitting a one-out double, Graziani tried to come home on a Jenkins single but was thrown out by Lassiter again when trying to come home.
With Wilson failing to capitalize on two key run scoring opportunities, Wayne County remained in the game and only trailing by two runs Radford opened up the top of the sixth inning with a double. After advancing to third on a Sweet groundout, he then came home to score on a fielding error by Graziani, and all of sudden, Wilson only held a one-run lead. Just when it seemed as if the game was heading in Wayne County’s direction though, batter Jordan Wright flew out to center fielder Adyn Gooding who made an excellent throw back to first to throw out Will Johnson who didn’t tag up to end the inning.
In the top of the seventh inning, Wayne County had one last chance to even the game, and they got off to a good start when Tyndall walked to get on base and then advanced to scoring position with a sacrifice bunt by Raynor. Their comeback attempt came up short though as Wilson pitcher Tyson Foster earned back-to-back strikeouts to end the game.
With the win, Wilson improved to 2-1 overall this season while Wayne County fell to 4-2 overall with the loss.
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