Spurgeon, Barnett help Post 11 complete series sweep of Pitt County

By Cam Ellis
Published in Sports on July 12, 2015 1:52 AM

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cellis@newsargus.com

DUDLEY -- An old baseball truism says "you can never have too many pitchers."

Wayne County Post 11 proved that adage true Friday evening.

Chad Spurgeon and Coy Barnett, who hadn't seen any mound action during the postseason, combined for a nine-hitter during a 14-7 conquest of Pitt County in their Area I East Division best-of-five semifinal-round series.

Post 11 won the series, 3-0.

After using three pitchers in an 11-inning affair Thursday evening, WC head coach Jason Sherrer called upon Spurgeon to start. The recent Spring Creek graduate struggled and allowed five runs -- all in the second inning -- during a three-inning stint.

Pitt County collected six hits, and capitalized on three walks and two errors. Spurgeon did retire one Post 39 batter on a strikeout.

"Chad hadn't thrown all year," Sherrer said. "He hadn't had to. I knew he threw in high school, so it wasn't like we were just throwing some random guy who hadn't pitched. When it comes down to that, you don't need your great stuff. You just need to throw strikes, and that's what we asked of him."

Spurgeon, who earned the no-decision, loaded the bases in the fourth with no outs. Barnett took over and kept Pitt County off the board. He struck out the first batter he faced and coaxed Post 39 into consecutive flyouts to end the scoring threat.

"We haven't thrown Coy because of choice," Sherrer added. "It's because he's had a little arm issue. We're kind of babying him as far as making sure he's not going to hurt himself. We're really communicative with our guys and they let us know whether they feel good or if they don't."

Unlike previous games, Wayne County didn't have a "big inning."

Instead, Post 11 scored at least one run in six of eight innings. They closed the door with a six-run eighth that squelched any hopes of a Pitt County comeback.

Jack Casbarro had three RBI in the win. Teammates Spurgeon, Jake Naughton, Barnett and Hampton each had two RBI. Bobby Hampton provided one RBI.

"We went into the eighth inning with a two-run lead, and then we obviously ended up pushing some runs across," Sherrer said. "It certainly helped our pitching and defense. The good news is that we can take our offensive mentality and momentum into the next game."

Pitt County concluded the year an uncharacteristic 5-15 overall. However, Post 39 had opportunities to steal the opener and take Game 2, but left the series-tying runs at third base in the bottom of the eighth and ninth innings.

"We were young," PC head coach Rodney Harris said. "We've got a lot of young guys in and a lot of experience that will be back next year. That's one of the biggest things we pushed to look for. We were a whole lot better today than when we were on May 30th."

Wayne County (18-5 overall) will enjoy a weekend break as it awaits the winner of the Kinston-Wilson series. Kinston leads 2-1 after a 5-4 loss to Wilson on Friday evening.