Wayne North downs Wayne South

By Ryan Hanchett
Published in Sports on July 10, 2010 11:51 PM

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DUDLEY -- Wayne North picked up it's 14th consecutive victory and inched one game closer to a Junior American Legion East Regional championship on Friday afternoon.

Wayne North bested Wayne South 5-3 in the second round of the regional bracket.

Things started poorly for North in the top of the first inning. Wayne South leadoff batter Taylor Gainey belted a double and was plated two batters later when Taylor Brock launched a double off the center field fence.

Wayne North answered in the bottom of the first inning.

Benito Avila drew a walk to start the stanza and immediately scored on a double off the bat of Jake May. Nolan James reached on an error and Wesley Capps ripped an RBI single that gave his team a 2-1 lead.

"These guys are really doing the little things well right now," Wayne North head coach Roger May said. "We were able to move some guys around and get a couple hits at big times."

Wayne North added a run in the third inning when Nolan James scored on a Jeremy Lancaster single. The momentum translated into two additional runs in the fifth inning when a South error and back-to-back singles from Lancaster and Wesley Stewart plated a pair of runs.

Down 5-1 entering the seventh inning, Wayne South went to work at the plate.

Taylor Gainey led off with a double and moved to third on a single by Zach Grantham. Taylor Brock plated a run with an RBI single. Tyler Gainey delivered a sacrifice-fly that made the game 5-3 and brought the go-ahead run to the plate.

Josh Dixon entered the game to pitch for Wayne North and shut down the rally with two prompt outs. The relief appearance preserved the mound win for Jeremy Lancaster.

"Jeremy did a great job of coming in and throwing strikes as a long reliever," said May. "We are going to need Josh to pitch (Saturday) but there was no hesitation to bring him in and he did a nice job too."

Jeremy Taylor suffered the loss for Wayne South.