GOLDSBORO – After giving up a five-run lead, Wilson Post 13 put together a four-run in the sixth inning to clinch a 9-5 victory against Wayne County Post 11 on June 3.
Wilson County got off to a good start when the first batter of the game, Adyn Gooding, walked to get on base. The inning looked like it may come quickly to an end though when Wayne County starting pitcher J. McLamb forced back-to-back groundouts to earn two quick outs. Gooding advanced on the basepaths with each groundout though which put him on third base, and with two outs, J.D. Graziani then knocked him home with an RBI single to give Wilson a 1-0 lead.
After a shutout inning from Coates in the bottom of the first, McLamb then opened up the second inning by forcing a groundout. After the first at-bat though, things quickly went downhill for McLamb, and he walked the next two batters he faced to put runners on first and second base. McLamb faced Maurice Love next who hit a groundball back to him which he committed an error on to load the bases.
With his confidence seemingly rattled, McLamb then hit the next batter he faced to walk in Love and give Wilson a 2-0 lead. Following that at-bat, he then gave up a two-RBI single from Nick Worrell which increased Post 13’s lead to 4-0. After forcing an infield fly from Jake Flowers for the second out of the inning, he then gave up another run when Graziani hit an RBI single off of him to knock in Gooding and give Post 11 a 5-0 lead.
With the game slipping away, the Wayne County coaching staff decided to make a change at the mound, and they brought on Erik Rosas who made an immediate positive impact for Wayne County by striking out the first batter he faced to end to the inning.
In the bottom of the third inning with Wilson still leading 5-0, Coates also seemed to lose control of the strike zone and hit McLamb during the first at-bat of the inning. After forcing back-to-back flyouts for two outs, he then threw a wild pitch allowing McLamb to advance to second base, and during the same at-bat, he also gave up an RBI single to Connor Radford allowing McLamb to come home and score on the throw.
After a scoreless fourth inning, Wayne County cut the Wilson lead further when, with two outs, Davis Albert crushed a solo home run over the right field wall to make the score 5-2. The home run seemed to fire up the Wayne County offense, and the home run was followed up by a single from Wyatt Lassiter and back-to-back walks from Radford and Jordan Wright.
With the secure lead Wilson once had evaporating, they decided to make a change at pitcher, and they brought M. Sasser to replace Coates on the mound. The change had the desired effect though, and he immediately walked the first batter he faced to walk in a run. With the bases still loaded, the next batter up for Wayne County, Miles Hamm, hit a groundball which the Wilson County first baseman was unable to make a play on—and thanks to the error— two more runs came in to tie the game at 5-5. Wilson County was able to stop the damage there though as Sasser forced the next Wayne County batter to groundout to end the inning.
After bringing in a pinch hitter for Erik Rosas in the bottom of the fifth, Rosas was not eligible to return to the game, and in the sixth inning, taking his spot on the mound, was W. Johnson. Johnson struggled to find the same success Rosas had though, and he immediately gave up a single to the first batter he faced, Seth Evans. Johnson then walked Ryan Bass and hit Gooding with a pitch to load the bases.
With Johnson struggling with his command at the mound, the Post 11 coaching staff decided to make another change at the mound, and they brought on Baines Raynor at pitcher. That change did not have the desired effect either though as Raynor immediately hit the first batter he faced to walk in a run and give Wilson a 6-5 lead. Raynor seemed to take control of the strike zone though and he forced the next batter he faced, Nick Worrell, to hit into a groundout which allowed one run to score but also secured an important first out of the inning. His control of the strike zone quickly eluded him though, and he walked the next Wilson batter he faced to load the bases.
In an inning that never seemed to end, Wayne County then made another change on the mound and brought in Radford to replace the struggling Raynor. Radford didn’t fair any better though, and he hit the first batter he faced to walk in another run and give Wilson an 8-5 lead. Radford then struck out the next batter he faced to finally earn the second out of the inning, but he still let in one more run before the inning was over as during the next at-bat, he threw a wild pitch allowing Gooding to come home to score and give his team a 9-5 lead.
The late four-run deficit ultimately proved to be too much for Wayne County to overcome as, even though Radford shut out Wilson County in the seventh inning, Post 11 was unable to score a single run in the final two innings of the game as they fell by a final score of 9-5.
With the win, Wilson improved to 2-0 against Wayne County this season and 5-1 overall. Wayne County fell to 5-3 overall with the loss.
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