Post 13 can’t keep up with Pitt Co. in game 3 slugfest

WINTERVILLE — The Wilson Post 13 baseball team got off to a great start in game 4 of the North Carolina American Legion Area I East Division semifinals series on the South Central High diamond Thursday night — but Pitt County Post 39 got off to an even better start in a 13-10 victory to take a 2-1 series lead.

Pitt County, the East No. 2 seed, answered Wilson’s three runs in the top of the first inning, with four in the bottom of the frame and another four in the second. Up 8-6 in the fourth, Post 39 put Wilson away with five more runs despite a seventh-inning rally by Post 13.

No. 3 Wilson, which lost for the fourth time in five 2024 games against Pitt County, takes a 15-10 mark into Friday’s game 4 at Fleming Stadium as Post 39 (13-6) tries to close out the series.

Thursday’s Fourth of July game had plenty of offensive fireworks — a stark contrast to Wilson’s 3-0 victory Wednesday at Fleming — with the teams combining for 22 hits (11 each) with half of that total going for extra bases. Neither team committed a defensive error.

Wilson jumped out in front early on Jake Flowers’ RBI double ahead of Brady Jenkins’ two-run triple, part of a 4-for-4 night for the Post 13 third baseman.

Post 39 retaliated immediately as the first three innings singled against Post 13 starter Landon Coleman, who issued two bases on balls and allowed another single before he got anyone out. Third baseman Mason Hobbs slugged a two-run home run as Pitt County tacked on four more runs in the second.

Post 13 scored a run in the top of the second when catcher Ryan Bass knocked the first of his two doubles and scored. Wilson kept plugging against Pitt County starter Jaquavious Clemmons, who had stymied Post 13 already this season, scoring six runs, all earned, on eight hits in his six-inning stint.

That was enough when his offense picked up a five-spot in the fourth off Wilson reliever Tyson Foster on doubles by shortstop Brody Stallings, catcher Jacob Scott and DH Raymond Shaw. Flowers and Barnes Willoughby combined to pitch the final 2 1/3 innings for Wilson without allowing any more runs.

Post 13 threatened to overcome the seven-run deficit in the seventh against Hobbs, who took over for Clemmons, when shortstop J.D. Graziani and Bass slapped RBI doubles around a run-producing single by Jenkins. But Hobbs retired the last two Wilson batters on fly balls to put Pitt County a win from advancing.

Score by innings:

Post 13 312 000 4 — 10

Post 39 440 500 x — 13

W-Jaquavious Clemmons 6 IP, 8 H, 6 R, 6 ER, 3 BB, 2 SO. L-Landon Coleman 1 2/3 IP, 6 H, 8 R, 8 ER, 4 BB, 1 SO.

LEADING HITTERS — Wilson: Brady Jenkins 4-4, 3B, 2 R, 3 RBIs; Mason Sasser 2-4; Ryan Bass 2-4, 2 2Bs, R, 2 RBIs; Maurice Love 1-3, 2B, 2 RBIs; J.D. Graziani 1-4, 2B, R, RBI; Jake Flowers 1-3, 2B, 2 R, RBI. Pitt County: Mason Hobbs 2-3, HR, 3 R, 3 RBIs; Brody Stallings 3-4, 2B, 2 R; Jacob Scott 1-2, 2B, 3 R, 2 RBIs; Rooke Knittle 2-2, R, 3 RBIs; Raymond Shaw 1-3, 2B, R, RBI; Max Mason 1-2, 2B, R, 2 RBIs.

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