Town of Mount Olive still hashing out rec director plans
Town, MOC to discuss development plan
SWHS student serves as Page in NC House of Representatives
Four MOC students earn scholarships
Calypso gets $200K in rural development grants
Wayne Co. schools unveil plans for ‘going green’
Duplin school board, commissioners hire lawyers
130 MPH chase ends in arrest
Photos
Issue Archives |
Wayne Legion team wins top playoff seed
10 July 2008–By John Cate, staff writer
The Wayne County Post 11 American Legion baseball team started out the season on fire, then hit a slump and for a time, it looked like they might not qualify, or else get a very poor seed in, postseason play in the highly competitive Area 1 East South division.
Luckily, they got the ship righted just in time, got hot again, and are headed into the postseason as the division’s top overall seed.
Post 11 pitcher Michael Douglas shut down Kinston for 6 2/3 innings in Sunday’s finale at Kinston, propelling his team to its eighth win in nine games and into a three-way tie atop the division’s standings along with Kinston and Pitt County Post 39. However, because Post 11 won three out of four with those rivals, it wins the tiebreaker for the top playoff seed.
The team will open the playoffs Thursday night against Tarboro, the fourth-place Area 1 East North team, at Southern Wayne High School.
Wayne (14-4 overall, 5-3 conf.) started the season off with six straight victories, including three in their final at-bat, but the quality of many of these opponents was called into question. Indeed, it seemed as if Post 11 was indeed an early-season fraud when the team lost its next three in a row, losing twice to New Bern and once to Pitt County Post 39 to fall to 1-3 in league play. Since only the top four teams advance to postseason play, Post 11’s slump had dug the team a deep hole.
The season turned in a Tuesday, June 24 showdown with Kinston. Desperately needing a victory, Wayne jumped out to leads of 8-2 and 10-5, but blew it in the eighth inning as the visitors rallied to forge a 10-all tie. But Thomas Pilkington drove the ball out of the park for a solo home in the bottom half of the inning, Post 11 held on in the ninth, and was back in the hunt.
The team then tore off another five straight victories, beating Pitt 39 and Pitt 160 along the way to surge to 4-3 in conference play. Wayne County refused to lose until it was finally beaten by Durham County in a July 3 contest at Southern Wayne High School. However, that was a non-conference game and didn’t really matter except that it ended the winning streak.
When the team returned to action on Sunday for the regular-season finale against Kinston, Wayne was safely into the playoffs, but would finish either first (if it beat Kinston) or fourth (on tiebreakers) if it lost the game. The latter was a fate the team wished to avoid, for this would put them on a collision course with powerhouse Rocky Mount in the first round.
Although the team’s pitching is not as strong as it was last year, Post 11 has compensated with heavy hitting. Wayne County is batting .311 as a team and has five hitters with averages well over .300, led by Walker Gourley .456 mark. Also hitting over .300 are Zach Wright (.373), John Wooten (.342), Nolan Lancaster (.340) and Tyler Edwards (.333). The pitching staff has a team ERA of just 4.71, but the heavy hitting has caused opposing pitchers to struggle far worse, with an ERA of 7.38 against Wayne.
If Wayne County wins its postseason series with Tarboro, it will face either Pitt County Post 39 or Wilson in the second round of the Area 1 East playoffs beginning next week. See the team website listed above for up-to-date information on how the team is doing.
Thieves clean out backyard, $6000 worth
TOP AREA JOBS The Town of Calypso has an opening for a full-time Public Works Grade I Associate ...
|
Issue of 10 July 2008 Our Other Newspapers... Wayne Wilson News Leader Princeton News Leader
|
|
