Garner hands Post 11 a season-opening loss

By Rudy Coggins
Published in Sports on May 26, 2015 1:48 PM

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rcoggins@newsargus.com

DUDLEY -- Defending Area I champion Garner Post 232 effectively employed the old "station-to-station" strategy Monday evening against Wayne County Post 11.

Garner pressured the Wayne County defense with three sacrifice bunts, a stolen base and benefited from five miscues -- three physical -- to claim a 6-2 victory on the Doyle Whitfield Athletic Complex baseball diamond.

It was the season opener for Wayne County.

"There's a lot to learn and we've got a new group guys. It will be fun and watch them learn, and figure out the game of baseball, and the team as we go," fourth-year Post 11 head coach Jason Sherrer said. "It was a learning experience today."

Post 11 hurler Tanner Wells and Zack Smith combined for an eight-hitter. Wells worked six innings and earned a no-decision in his first-ever Senior Legion start. Smith yielded four runs (two earned) on five hits and endured the loss.

Sherrer said Post 11 didn't put itself in situations to match Garner's offensive strategy. Wayne County scratched out eight hits against Post 232 pitchers Troy Maslawski and Matt Duckworth, but also batted 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position.

Wayne County left nine men on base and had nine hits.

"We didn't get our lead-off guy on enough to kind of station-to-station over," Sherrer said. "We swung at some bad pitches early on in the count and got ourselves out quick. (We) made it easy on them to sit back and play some defense, and when they did make a couple of mistakes, we really didn't capitalize on it."

Post 11 had just two lead-off batters reach base. Daniels drew a walk in the bottom of the first inning and scored on Zack Smith's RBI groundout.

In his 124th plate appearance in a Post 11 uniform, Chad Spurgeon mashed a lead-off home run -- the first in his Senior Legion career -- over the left-field wall in the bottom of the sixth inning. That tied the game at 2-all.

Tanner Wells permitted two earned runs on six hits, walked three and retired two Post 232 batters on strikeouts. He exited the game down 2-1.

"Tanner did fine for six innings, got us out of some jams and was able to keep us in the ballgame" Sherrer said.

Smith took over to start the seventh and picked off the lead-off runner, who reached on a single. Garner moved in front 3-2 on a passed ball in the seventh inning and extended its lead to 4-2 on Diego Gurrero's eighth-inning single.

Garner managed eight hits on the night.