Wayne County Post 11 got its first win of the season in dominant fashion against Hamlet Post 49 on Wednesday evening.
Post 11 scored five runs in the first inning cruised to a 13-2 victory on Sammy Cox Field at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke.
Starting pitcher Carson Gipson set the tone for the game. Gipson struck out two of the four batters he faced in the top of the first.
“I thought we did a good job coming out early and scoring,” Wayne County Post 11 head coach Adam Pate said. “Carson Gipson had a great start on the mound.”
In the bottom of the first, Rowan Watt drew a walk to get on base. Watt then stole second and third base, and he later scored off a wild pitch.
After Tanner Capps scored off a Hamlet error, Sam Rice hit an RBI double that enabled Drew Spencer to score and put Post 11 up 3-0.
Later in the inning, Hamlet tried to pick off Matt Kornegay at second base, and Rice sprinted home for the 4-0 lead.
Braeden Collins then connected on an RBI single, and Kornegay trotted home to score Post 11’s fifth run of the inning.
“I thought we did a good job of setting that table. We were able to run, and that’s a big part of our game,” Pate said.
Post 11 kept the offensive onslaught going with four more runs in the second inning.
Capp’s RBI single gave Wayne County a 6-0, while three batters later, Kornegay drew a bases-loaded walk.
Collins then hit another RBI single, while Justin Holland followed with an RBI double to make it 9-0.
“Even after we got through our lineup a couple of times and put the subs in, we kept scoring,” Pate said.
Benjamin Peacock came in to pitch the third inning, and he struck out three of the four batters he faced to keep Hamlet off the board in the top of the third inning. And in the bottom of the inning, Wayne County scored three runs to increase its lead to 12-0.
Hamlet managed to score two runs in the top of the fourth, but Post 49 could not make the gap any smaller, and Will Harris hit an RBI single in the bottom of the fourth to score Holland and increase Post 11’s lead to 13-2.
Will Pennington closed out the game in the top of fifth, and he also had a strong showing on the mound. Penning struck out three of the four batters he faced to give Post 11 the mercy-rule victory.
“We had a couple of other pitchers do well on the mound in Benjamin Peacock and Will Pennington, so on the mound and defensively, I was happy,” Pate said. “Offensively, we did good, and I just want to build on that going forward.”
Wayne County will look to keep things rolling against Kenly Post 328 tonight. First pitch is set for 7 p.m. at Charles B. Aycock High School.
“It’s going to be a busy week, and I’m looking forward to seeing our guys play a lot of days in a row and see how we respond to the challenge,” Pate said.
