Post 11 routs Creedmoor

By Rudy Coggins
Published in Sports on May 26, 2013 1:52 AM

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CREEDMOOR -- The first impression created some doubts, but turned into a pleasant outcome on an unseasonably cool Friday evening.

Wayne County Post 11 shook off its first-inning impatience and cranked out a 14-3, mercy-rule victory over Creedmoor Post 161 on the South Granville High School diamond. It was the season-opening game for each Senior American Legion baseball team.

"After infield-outfield (before the game), I didn't think we were ready to play," second-year Post 11 head coach Jason Sherrer said. "The first inning, we had six pitches ... all ground-ball jam shots and I thought it was going to be a longer day than it was.

"We turned around, starting hitting our pitches ... line drives and hard ground balls and starting scoring some runs."

Seven of nine starters pounded out at least one hit for Wayne County, which won its ninth consecutive season-opening contest. Adam Pate batted 5-for-5 with four RBI from the lead-off spot, while Gregory Johnson contributed three hits and three RBI in his Senior Legion debut.

Post 11 finished with 16 hits on the night.

Reed Howell emerged the winning pitcher in his first-ever Senior Legion start and appearance on the bump. The right-hander limited Creedmoor to a pair of earned runs on four hits and recorded four strikeouts in a five-inning stint.

A junior at Rosewood, Howell retired nine of the first 10 batters he faced and threw 30 pitches through the first three innings.

"Reed threw awesome," Sherrer said. "We were actually going to throw Josh Dixon, but he told me he couldn't go because he rolled his ankle in gym class today.

"We played pretty sound defense, don't think we had an error. Reed had about three or four double play (grounders) where we just couldn't turn on the backside."

Ryan Grant tossed two innings of two-hit, one-strikeout relief.

After hitting into a rally-killing double play in the first inning, Wayne County gave Howell all the run support he needed in the second. Greene Central's Chad Murphy singled into the hole at shortstop, moved into scoring position on a groundout and Ashton Cox's full-count walk.

Murphy scored on Johnson's single to right field. Smith drove in Cox and Pate plated Johnson with an RBI single up the middle to make it 3-0.

Wayne County tallied four third-inning runs and broke the game open with a six-run fourth-inning outburst. Creedmoor used five pitchers on the night with right-handed starter Zack Cooper absorbing the loss in just two-plus innings of work.