Post 11 drops tough loss
By Rudy Coggins
Published in Sports on June 18, 2010 1:46 PM
MOUNT OLIVE -- Adron Hollowell stood 90 feet away.
He crept off third base as Clayton Post 71 reliever Kevin Rose delivered each pitch. But Hollowell, who represented the tying run in the ninth inning, got stranded.
Rose recorded back-to-back strikeouts and capped the visitors' come-from-behind, 11-10 triumph over Wayne County Post 11 at Scarborough Field on Thursday evening. Post 11 suffered its third defeat in its last four outings and first setback against an Area I West opponent this season.
"Late in the game it got too stressful for some of these guys," said Post 11 assistant coach Jason Sherrer.
This one definitely slipped away.
Clayton seized a 4-0 lead through 5 1/2 innings. Post 11 southpaw Eric DuBose served up a lead-off home run to Josh Catalano in the first, and a two-run bomb to Logan Smitherman in the fifth.
Post 71 starter Hunter Jones held Wayne County (7-3 overall) hitless until Matt Neal drilled a lead-off single to start the fourth. Jones logged five strikeouts, walked two batters and held Post 11 scoreless through five innings.
"For starters, right out of the gate, their pitcher was shutting us down. He was throwing two pitches for strikes and I think we were swinging at the wrong pitches, obviously," said Post 11 assistant coach Jason Sherrer. "We were swinging at pitches in the dirt for strike three. He held us at bay as far as not letting us get in a comfort zone, mixed it up a little bit."
Jones fell apart in the sixth.
Wayne County erupted for eight runs on seven hits and benefited from three Clayton defensive miscues. Hollowell (2-for-5, 3 RBI) delivered a three-run home run to put Post 11 in front 5-4. It was Hollowell's second round-tripper of the season and just the sixth overall for Wayne County in 10 games this season.
Nicholas McGee, Tyler Edwards, Jordan Williams and Neal (3-for-5) each collected an RBI during the momentum-changing inning.
"We thought we were in the driver's seat for a little bit," said Sherrer.
But Post 11 lost its focus.
Clayton kept swinging and plated three seventh-inning runs on three two-strike hits. Post 71 pulled within 9-8 in the eighth and took the lead for good in the ninth.
Wayne County reliever Zach Beachem walked the lead-off batter, committed an error on a pickoff attempt and could never recover. Post 11 failed to cover the base on a bunt and Beachem hit the next batter to load the bases.
"We got into a little 'snowball' fight when they put us in a bunt defense situations," said Sherrer. "We were looking for an out (on the pickoff). Balls were flying in the infield and luckily they didn't score more ... probably didn't want to run themselves out of the inning.
"Overall, our pitching did okay as far as throwing strikes, but we left the ball up a little bit. But we didn't do a good enough job of throwing the ball down in the zone and we gave up too many 0-2 hits. All of our guys are better than that and they're frustrated right now."
Post 71 pushed runs across on a wild pitch and Dillon Bass' sacrifice fly to center field. Rose preserved the advantage despite giving up two hits and yielding one run on a wild pitch in the Post 11 ninth.