800 -- at last: Wayne County rolls at Edenton

By Rudy Coggins
Published in Sports on June 22, 2013 11:11 PM

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rcoggins@newsargus.com

EDENTON -- Pardon the cliche.

The third time was the charm and a bit of a struggle, too.

Coming off an emotional doubleheader loss to its archrival, Wayne County Post 11 achieved a long-awaited milestone in Area I East Division play on a breezy Friday evening.

Cody Wendorf recorded eight strikeouts and Post 11 secured its 800th victory in program history -- an 11-1 mercy-rule decision over Edenton Post 40 at Historic Hicks Field. Wayne County (13-4 overall, 5-3 East) swept the regular-season series.

"Being part of the 800th win is pretty cool," Wayne County head coach Jason Sherrer said. "It's kind of humbling to know that you've got that many wins in a high school summer league (program), so that tells you how far it dates back and how well this Legion (program) does (each year)."

There was no letdown, either.

Wayne County, which dropped two one-run defeats to Kinston on Tuesday, started out fast against Edenton. Post 11 manufactured four first-inning runs on two hits, two walks, two wild pitches, an error and a balk.

Ashton Cox provided a one-out, two-RBI backside single during the surge. The Gardner-Webb signee concluded the day 3-for-6 with three RBI.

"You put the ball in play and things happen," Sherrer said.

Post 11 pushed across five fifth-inning runs with the benefit of only one hit. Post 40 pitchers labored through an inning that included four walks, two errors and two hit batsmen. Garrett Joyner connected on an RBI sacrifice fly, while Cox drove in his third run of the game.

Justin Barbour (1-for-1) scored on a seventh-inning wild pitch and Reed Howell invoked the mercy rule with an eight-inning RBI groundout.

Wayne County collected nine hits despite batting 2-for-15 with runners in scoring position and stranding a season-high 16 men on base. Sherrer's club left the bases loaded in the third, sixth and seventh innings.

"We did have a couple of hits here and there where we needed them, and got them with guys in scoring position," Sherrer said. "It felt like it's been a while since we've had back-to-back hits, and we had that twice today."

The Post 11 defense turned a season-high four double plays behind Wendorf and reliever Josh Dixon. Wendorf (4-0) carried a one-hit shutout into the fifth before an error extended the inning and allowed Post 40 to scratch out its lone run of the game.

Dixon provided three innings of two-strikeout relief.

Wayne County claimed its sixth consecutive win against Edenton and rose to 62-26 all-time in the series.