Snow Hill remains unbeaten

By Rob Craig
Published in Sports on June 13, 2007 1:49 PM

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MOUNT OLIVE -- The showdown between Area I East South Division archrivals Wayne County Post 11 and Snow Hill Post 94 looked like a giant mismatch for the first five innings Tuesday evening.

Snow Hill put up four-run innings in the first and fifth to go ahead 8-0.

Before the fans could file out disappointed, Post 11 crawled back to make it a ball game.

Post 11 scored a run in the sixth and five in the seventh to make it a game at 8-6. Snow Hill though, was able to hold on when Jordan Corbett fanned John Wooten and Zack Wright to end the game and preserve an 8-7 win at Scarborough Field.

"I'm please with the way we swung the bats," said Snow Hill assistant coach John Smith. "They threw some good pitchers against us and we put the bat on the ball."

Putting the bat on the ball was something both teams did all night long.

Wayne County and Snow Hill combined for 24 hits and both teams could very easily have had more hits -- and runs -- had it not been for some stellar defense.

Twice with runners in scoring position, Snow Hill hit into inning-ending double plays. The big blow though, came in the top of the fifth inning. With three runs already across and runners at every base with no one out, Brandon Price relieved Taylor Bullard.

Price got Michael Speedy to hit into a double play. As Wooten caught the ball for the second out, Lance Murray sprinted towards the plate. Wooten fired a strike to catcher Tyler Ham who tagged out Murray to complete the triple play.

"The triple play was my fault for getting a little greedy," said Smith. "If the first baseman hesitates then we steal a run from them. With an eight-run lead it looks OK, but as they chipped away it made you look back and wonder if it was a good move."

Post 11 coach Brad Reaves knows his defense will be there -- his pitchers just have to use them.

"We know we're going to play good defense and our pitchers have to understand that," he said. "Brandon understood that. He came in there and let them swing it and got some ground balls."

The 8-0 deficit Wayne County faced was made even more frustrating because of hard hit balls that kept finding Snow Hill fielders.

"They hit some balls hard and a lot of those were hit right at somebody so we caught some breaks," said Smith.

Those line drives found something other than a glove in the bottom of the second inning when Thomas Pilkington lined a shot off the wrist of starting pitcher Drew Sowers.

"Sowers needed an 'L' screen out there," said Wayne County coach Brad Reaves. "We can't hit it much better than what we hit it."

Sowers shook off the injury and stayed in to throw six strong innings and allow three runs on eight hits to pick up the win.

"When I checked on (Drew) his wrist was bothering him," said Smith. "But he sucked it up and pitched good for us. I've been around Drew long enough to know if he says he's OK, then he's OK."

Wayne County got a comeback going in the bottom of the seventh inning when Dave Overman led off with a double. Sowers would then be chased from the game after he plunked Alex Casey.

Robert Tyndall entered and proceeded to give up a two-run single to Will Edgerton to make it an 8-3 game. Garrett Davis later hit a sacrifice fly and with two outs, Wooten blasted a two-run homer to pull Wayne County to within 8-6.

Wayne County looked as if it would complete the comeback in the bottom of the ninth when Davis singled home Walker Gourley with one out. After Corbett fanned Wooten, Wright came up as a pinch-hitter and was seemingly hit by a pitch to put runners at first and second.

The umpire instead called a strike on Wright for "leaning over the plate."

"We had a super chance to win," said Reaves. "Zack does exactly what he's supposed to do. He gets a hanging breaking ball, and wears it and we get called a strike right there.

"(Zach) better do the same thing next time. You just can't call that."

Corbett could then get Wright swinging to end the game and pick up the save.

For the game, a host of players had big nights at the plate. Justin Bagley, Trey Beaman, Lance Murray and Hunter Chase all had two hits apiece for unbeaten Post 94 -- now 7-0 overall and 1-0 against South Division opposition.

Wayne County (4-1, 1-1 South) was led by Edgerton who finished 4-for-5 with two RBI and Wooten who was 3-for-5 with a home run and three RBI.

"I was pleased with the way we came back," said Reaves. "We just dug a hole to start with."

Snow Hill 400 040 000 -- 8 12 1

Post 11 000 001 501 -- 7 12 1

Leading Hitters -- Snow Hill -- Justin Bagley 2-4; Trey Beaman 2-5, 2B; Hunter Chase 2-5, RBI; Lance Murray 2-3, RBI; Will Rhem 1-4, 2B, RBI; Bud Robertson 1-5, 2 RBI; Tyler Chase 1-3, RBI. Wayne County -- Will Edgerton 4-5, 2 RBI; John Wooten 3-5, HR, 3 RBI; Garrett Davis 2-2, 2 RBI; Jackson Massey 1-5; Dave Overman 1-3, 2B.

DP -- Snow Hill 1, Wayne County 2. TP -- Wayne County 1. LOB -- Snow Hill 7, Wayne County 8. SB -- Davis. CS -- Bagley. SF -- Davis.

IP H R ER BB SO

Snow Hill

Sowers (W) 6 8 3 3 1 2

Tyndall 2 3 4 4 0 2

Corbett (S) 1 1 0 0 0 3

Wayne County

Hinson (L) 3 6 4 3 2 1

Bullard 1 4 4 4 1 0

Price 5 2 0 0 2 0

Sowers pitched to two batters in the seventh. Tyndall pitched to one batter in the ninth. Bullard pitched to six batters in the fifth.

WP -- Sowers, Corbett, Hinson. PB -- Murray. HBP -- by Sowers (Casey), by Tyndall (Casey), by Bullard (Rhem, Murray).