Post 11 gets Area I East South Division win

By Andrew Stevens
Published in Sports on June 1, 2008 3:28 AM

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DUDLEY -- Wayne County Post 11's offense was a bit late to the party on Friday evening, but fortunately Taylor Allen was right on time.

The senior from Rosewood tossed seven innings of three-hit shutout baseball and Post 11's bats finally got going in a 7-2 victory over Pitt County Post 160 at Southern Wayne High School.

Allen struck out five and walked four, and after struggling with control early on, he seemed to grow stronger as the game progressed.

"That's what we expect out of Taylor," said Wayne County head coach Brad Reaves. "I challenged Taylor a little bit Thursday night. We were watching the Junior Legion play and I challenged him that if he wants to be our 'go-to' guy -- and I think he does -- he has to throw it the way he did tonight."

Allen wiggled out of a bases loaded jam in the second inning with Wayne County (3-0 overall, 1-0 Area I East South Division) clinging to a 1-0 lead. The right-hander left the tying run on base in the fourth, sixth and seventh innings.

"Taylor has to realize that if he'll let us play defense behind him we will make plays," said Reaves. "We had a couple of spots where we didn't play great defense tonight but we can make plays. We're going to get better."

Pitt County starter Will James held the Post 11 offense scoreless for six innings, working his way out of jams in the third and the fifth.

Zach Wright got Wayne County's half of the sixth inning started by reaching on an error. Jay Rose followed with a double to left and Cambric Moye's groundout scored Wright.

Tyler Edwards and Walker Gourley provided back-to-back RBI singles in the seventh to stretch the lead to 3-0. Edwards and Gourley both finished 2-for-3 with two RBI and a run scored.

Wright added an RBI infield single and Rose tacked on a sacrifice fly.

Edwards and Gourley pitched in consecutive sacrifice flies in the eighth inning pushing Wayne County's cushion to 7-0.

Bryant Hill and Alex Casey both tallied a pair of hits.

"What got us going was the bottom of our lineup," said Reaves. "Bryant Hill and Alex Casey they really came through for us and set us up at the front. We did a much better job of making adjustments later in the game than we did early."

Pitt County picked up a pair of unearned runs in the ninth off reliever Adron Hollowell. Two Post 160 runners reach on errors and Tanner Lovick's double drove them home.