Area I East finals: Game 2 -- Lethargic Wayne County falls on the road

By Rudy Coggins
Published in Sports on July 15, 2014 1:48 PM

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rcoggins@newsargus.com

GREENVILLE -- Jason Sherrer can accept some losses, except when a team doesn't give its maximum effort on the baseball diamond.

That was the case Monday evening.

Lethargic from the opening pitch, Wayne County Post 11 spotted nemesis Pitt County Post 39 a five-run lead in the bottom of the first inning. Sherrer's club never recovered.

Zac Banks tossed a one-hitter for six-plus innings and Pitt County snapped Wayne County's eight-game win streak with a 9-4 victory at Minges-Overton Field. Post 39 evened the Area I East championship series at 1-1 heading into Game 3 today at Southern Wayne.

"We came out flat, couldn't quite get it going for some odd reason," Sherrer said. "We brought it up in the dugout a couple of times, talked about our approach (at the plate) ... thought for sure we'd bounce back after that bad first inning.

"It put us behind the eight ball, but we've been there before and we were certainly not out of the game."

But Wayne County, the regular-season champion, couldn't reproduce the 20-run outburst from one night earlier. Eubanks dictated the tempo on the mound and held Post 11 to a single hit -- Ryan Faucette's first-inning single through six innings.

Banks and reliever Blake Allen held Wayne County to playoff lows of four runs and four hits, and didn't allow a hit with runners in scoring position. Post 11 stranded 11 men with five at either second or third base.

"We didn't take advantage of some times where we could score a run here, a run there," said Sherrer, whose team committed 10 strikeouts. "We let them dictate what we were going to do and with an offensive approach, you can't let somebody handle you the way we were handled today.

"(Banks) had his way with us, threw very well ... down in the zone and got us to chase pitches we shouldn't swing at which led to the punchouts, the lack of putting the ball in play and making the defense make a play."

Pitt County (13-9 overall) roughed up Wayne County left-hander Greg Johnson (5-2) during its first at-bat. The first six hitters reached base and Kyle Cross delivered a key, two-strike two-RBI single that just got past a diving Chad Spurgeon at second base.

Drew Piscorik homered off of Johnson in the sixth -- the third round-tripper issued by Post 11's pitching staff in the postseason. Two misjudged fly balls in the outfield sparked a three-run, eighth-inning rally with reliever Ben Rouse on the mound.

Johnson and Rouse combined to yield nine earned runs.

Wayne County (14-5-1) manufactured its first run on Zack Smith's RBI groundout in the third inning. Logan Miller's RBI groundout and an infield error led to a pair of sixth-inning runs.

Post 11 climbed to within 6-4 in the seventh when Smith scored on a wild pitch. But Wayne County couldn't get any closer and endured its second loss on Pitt County's field this season.

"(The) overall intensity and effort wasn't there, and that's most disappointing," Sherrer said. "We're a good ballclub and they're a good ballclub, too, but we definitely should have been in the game more than we were mentally-wise."