Pitt County eliminates Wayne County Post 11

By Ryan Hanchett
Published in Sports on July 9, 2013 1:47 PM

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rhanchett@newsargus.com

DUDLEY -- For the second time in three days Pitt County Post 39 pitcher Jarrett Ozimek took the ball and strode to the pitchers mound with the same result.

Ozimek pitched four sterling innings of relief and earned his second win of the three game series in Pitt County's 9-3 victory over Wayne County Post 11 on Monday night.

Post 39 advances to play Rocky Mount in the second round. Wayne County is eliminated from Area I East postseason play.

"Jarrett wanted the ball tonight," Pitt County head coach Rodney Harris said. "During warm-ups he came to me and told me that he was ready to go three or four innings if I needed him."

No small feat for a pitcher who tossed six innings in Post 39's game-one win. Ozimek totaled 10 innings and 162 pitches in the series. He allowed three total runs on seven hits.

Pitt County got off to a good start in the first inning when Davis Kirkpatrick delivered an RBI single and Aaron Clark followed with a sacrifice fly that gave the visitors a 2-0 lead.

Wayne County battled back in the bottom half of the inning. Zack Smith singled, moved up on a passed ball and later scored on a wild pitch to cut the deficit in half.

Pitt County (7-6 overall) added an insurance run in the second inning before both starting pitchers settled down and started hanging zeros on the scoreboard. Wayne County pushed across one run in the bottom of the fourth when Ashton Cox belted an RBI double that plated Ryan Faucette.

Post 11 tied the game in the bottom of the sixth. Duane Gurganus doubled and later scored on Kevin Williams productive groundout that made the score 3-3.

"I thought for six innings we really played well," Wayne County head coach Jason Sherrer said. "Reed (Howell) threw the ball well, our guys had good intensity at the plate and we made some things happen."

Pitt County put the game away in the seventh inning. Matt Boyd drew a one-out walk and was followed by back-to-back singles from Tyler Garrett and Tyler Ables that loaded the bases. Kirkpatrick plated the go-ahead run with a base hit and Clark followed with a run-scoring single. Kyle Cross hit a sacrifice fly and Thomas Conlin capped the rally with an RBI base hit that made the score 8-3.

"The seventh inning they just hit the ball," Sherrer said. "It wasn't like we were walking a bunch of guys or making errors... Good teams make adjustments. That happens in baseball."

Pitt County added a final run in the ninth inning to complete the 9-3 final. Howell suffered the loss on the pitcher's mound despite pitching six solid innings.

"Reed had not thrown live in about three weeks," Sherrer said. "So for him to go out and give us a quality start was big. We just ran into one rough inning."

Wayne County finished the season 14-7 overall.