Post 11 claims Area I East Division championship

By Rudy Coggins
Published in Sports on July 18, 2014 1:48 PM

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rcoggins@newsargus.com

WINTERVILLE -- Staring at the "2" put up by Pitt County Post 39 on the scoreboard in the bottom of the first inning, Wayne County Post 11 pitcher Zack Smith and catcher Kevin Williams got together for a short conversation.

Smith's fastball wasn't effective.

"I talked to Kevin and said let's just work in some more change-ups ... offspeed to get them off balance because I was throwing too many fastballs and they started timing it," Smith said.

Smith became nearly unhittable from that point.

In his first -- and most important -- start of the season, the right-hander tossed a sterling six-inning five-hitter and Wayne County Post 11 punched its ticket to the N.C. Senior American Legion state tournament in Lexington with a 9-3 victory on the Minges-Overton Field diamond Thursday evening.

"It reminded me of the last game of the (regular) season when we played Pitt," said WC head coach Jason Sherrer, whose team faces Garner Post 232 in the best-of-three Area I Championship series, which starts Saturday.

"Sound defense, very good at-bats ... were able to jump on them early and take advantage of some miscues. When you put their backs against the wall like that, it's tough to come back and we kept adding on. It was very good to see after the way we played Monday, we bounced back twice and played the way we're capable."

Wayne County (16-5-1 overall) secured its first Area I East Division crown since 2011 and 11th overall in program history.

Smith started to hit his spots and log first-pitch strikes after a shaky first inning. He threw a perfect third, but the fourth proved extremely critical in the grueling, four-game series.

Pitt County (13-11) loaded the bases on a walk and back-to-back singles, including a perfectly-placed infield bunt by No. 9 hitter Phillip Ellis. Smith answered with a strikeout and an inning-ending flyout to right field.

"If I were to give up a couple of runs right there, it probably would have knocked the wind out of us a little bit," said Smith, whose defense played error free behind him. "We probably would have been down and decrease our confidence hitting and in the field. Putting up a zero, we shut down Pitt's confidence a little bit."

Post 39 scratched out a meaningless run in the eighth against reliever Ryan Faucette, who notched his third save of the postseason. Smith and Faucette combined to retire 17 of the final 19 batters they faced.

"I told him before the game we're not planning on him going nine innings," Sherrer said of Smith, who threw 91 pitches. "I told him to give me everything he had, and he did exactly that. Once we got out of the first inning, I knew it was going to be a ballgame, which is the way it always is against Pitt.

"Zack got some big outs when we really needed them and we made some good plays to keep them at bay."

Wayne County spotted Smith a 5-0 lead after 1/2 inning.

Garrett Joyner drew a lead-off walk, Kevin Williams doubled and Post 39 southpaw Adam Harrell issued a walk to Faucette, which loaded the bases. Joyner crossed on a wild pitch and Faucette trotted home on Chad Spurgeon's sacrifice fly to left field.

Hank Smitherman, Allen Coor and Coy Barnett each followed with a run-scoring base hit.

"That was the excitement," Joyner said. "These guys have been putting us down the last couple of games, except the first game where we jumped on them early. We came through today, though."

Harrell retired six of seven Post 11 batters and benefited from a double-play groundball over the next two-plus innings. But he couldn't limit the damage in the fourth inning.

Joyner smacked an RBI triple off the right-field wall to make it 6-1. He scored on Williams' run-scoring base knock that officially sent Harrell to the showers for the night.

"We kept scrapping a little bit at the time," Joyner said.

Spurgeon scampered home on a fifth-inning passed ball and Faucette launched a solo home run, his fourth of the season, in the ninth. Wayne County finished the series-clinching win with nine hits.

"We harp on being aggressive, but disciplined at the same time," Sherrer said. "Sometimes it seems like they're confused on what that means, but if you're looking for one pitch and get it, that's the one we're swinging at. We were looking for those pitches and we got them."