Wayne County gets mercy-rule win over Ahoskie Post 102

By Andrew Stevens
Published in Sports on June 2, 2013 1:53 AM

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In the midst of a rigorous five-day stretch of five consecutive games, Wayne County needs as many chances to cruise as it can get.

Post 11 didn't waste one of those opportunities on Saturday afternoon.

Wayne County pounded out 14 hits on its way to a 13-1, mercy-rule win over Area I East Division foe Ahoskie Post 102 at Goldsboro High School. Four different Post 11 players collected at least two hits.

Starting pitcher Cody Wendorf and reliever Ryan Grant combined to hold Post 102 to two hits.

"We kind of started off pretty fast," Wayne County head coach Jason Sherrer said. "Our pitching staff threw a lot of walks, but we just kind of battled through it and we ended up scoring some runs there toward the end, too."

Adam Pate's solo home run in the bottom of the first inning put Wayne County in front for good. Justin Barbour added a two-run single. Ashton Cox's RBI single gave Post 11 a 4-0 lead. Cox finished with a season-high four RBI.

Ahoskie scored its lone run on a Wayne County error in the top of the third inning. Post 102 squandered a chance to cut further into the deficit, but left the bases loaded.

Jacob Sasser lined an RBI single to left field in the bottom of the third inning. Pate raced home on an Ahoskie error in the home half of the fourth inning as the lead grew to 6-1. Cox and Chad Murphy both delivered RBI singles in the bottom of the fifth.

Post 11 broke the game open with five runs in the bottom of the sixth inning. Garrett Joyner scored on Ryan Faucette's single and a Post 102 error. Cox drove home a pair of runs with a double.

Sasser tacked on a sacrifice fly and Pate had an RBI single to extend the lead to 13-1.

"We always try to have a goal before the game of getting everybody in the game," Sherrer said. "If we do a good job offensively of scoring some runs and getting hits, then a lot of the guys who didn't start that day have a chance of getting some reps in case later on down the road they need to play."

Wendorf struggled to find the strike zone early and used a triple play to work out of a jam with runners on first and second base, and no outs in the first inning. Ahoskie left the bases full in the third inning.

Despite his control issues, Wendorf surrendered one unearned run on five walks, didn't yield a hit and struck out seven Post 102 batters.

"I think Cody was have trouble with the mound, it's just a different mound than we're kind of used to," Sherrer said. "We talked to him and he made an adjustment and his velocity came back and he was throwing strikes and he took us deeper in the game than we were planning on with his pitch count being up around 40 or 50 in two innings."

Grant tossed two innings of two-hit, scoreless relief.

Wayne County (6-1 overall, 1-0 East) travels to Ahoskie today.