SENIOR LEGION: Wayne County's Peacock shuts down W-RH Post 156

By Rudy Coggins
Published in Sports on June 10, 2016 1:48 PM

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rcoggins@newsargus.com

MOUNT OLIVE -- JP Peacock grabbed his glove and his brief conversation with Wayne County Post 11 head coach Jason Sherrer ended quickly as he headed toward the pitcher's mound Thursday evening.

"I told him Iwas going out to get the job done," Peacock said.

And he delivered.

The right-hander, in his longest outing of the year, provided seven sterling innings of four-hit relief as Wayne County emerged victorious, 8-4, over Wallace-Rose Hill Post 156 at Scarborough Field.

A rising junior at Rosewood, Peacock retired 15 of 18 batters he faced over a five-inning stretch that helped Post 11 shake off some early-inning doldrums that led to a four-run deficit.

Peacock efficiently worked around the plate with a three-pitch arsenal that induced groundouts and shallow fly balls from Post 156 batters. He issued just one free pass and allowed just six base runners in his second appearance of the season.

"I talked to Kody (Whitley), our pitching coach, and said they're going to key in on fastballs and curveballs, and we had to start mixing in changeups. That's what we did towards the end to keep them off balance," Peacock said of his first-ever Senior Legion career win.

"The last few times I've been in the game, I've had about three good innings and then the last couple of innings, I'd just get roughed up. So I figured if I come out here today, I've got to throw strikes ... keep pounding the strike zone and stay in it."

Wallace-Rose Hill ended the game with eight hits, including three by right fielder Logan Jones. Spring Creek product Sawyer Smith batted 2-for-4 with an RBI.

Four defensive miscues mixed with four hits, a walk and hit batsman seemingly put Post 156 through 1 1/2 innings of play.

"We came out a little lazy, I thought," Sherrer said. "We kind of picked it up, made some good plays defensively. It was a long first inning and long second inning on defense, and JP came in and cleaned it up very well."

Post 11 slowly clawed back into the game.

Derek Neal's first-inning RBI single and Lee Daniels' RBI groundout trimmed the deficit in half, 4-2, after two innings. Zack Smith's groundout and Chad Spurgeon's sacrifice bunt forged a 4-4 tie after three innings.

That opened the bullpen turnstile for Post 156.

Head coach Tom Teachey called on four relievers out of the bullpen behind right-handed starter Phillip Ashlock. Colby Bass exited with the game tied and right-hander Ricky Cameron, from North Duplin, kept Post 11 quiet for two innings.

Wayne County (4-3 overall) plated the go-ahead run on a sixth-inning throwing error.

Zack Smith's RBI triple ignited a three-run seventh against Spring Creek's Will Rouse. Spurgeon knocked in Smith and scored Post 11's final run on Carlyle Smith's second double of the night.

"I really couldn't tell you," Peacock said of WC's late-inning offensive success. "I don't know if it's we finally just hit a groove all of a sudden (or) he (Teachey) brought the right guy in against us and we just started hitting him."

Seven of nine Post 11 starters registered at least one hit. Jack Casbarro supplied a team- and game-high four hits. Zack and Carlyle Smith each had two.