There’s nothing more intense than a nail-biting, season-opening outing against a long-time nemesis on the baseball diamond.
Just ask Wayne County Post 11.
Despite a disastrous fourth inning, Post 11 regained its composure and claimed a come-from-behind 10-7 triumph over Kinston Post 43 at the C35 Complex Tuesday evening.
“We still have a lot of learning to do going into tonight [at Pitt] and next week,” fifth-year Post 11 skipper Adam Pate said.
Post 11 stormed to a 4-0 lead through three innings.
Pate watched his team manufacture runs on a groundout, a passed ball, an infield error and a sacrifice fly. Returning starters Lane McLean, Wyatt Lassiter and Carter Aycock — along with newcomer Collin Woolard — each delivered a single.
While the offense rang up numbers on the scoreboard, Carter Gipson gave himself an early birthday present. The right-hander, who turns 19 today, logged three shutout innings on the bump.
A rising sophomore at the University of Mount Olive, Gipson retired nine of 11 batters he faced on 30 pitches. He coaxed Post 43 into four groundouts, two flyouts and notched three strikeouts.
“A great start for Carter,” Pate said.
Pate went to his bullpen and the game got interesting.
Kinston sent 11 batters to the plate and forged ahead 6-4 in the top half of the fourth inning. Post 11 extended the inning with three errors.
“We didn’t take care of the baseball that inning, which helped them,” Pate said. “I was proud of how we responded and didn’t get out of control. The guys stayed calm, came up to the plate and found ways to score runs.
“I really liked our plate approach. We got some walks, got hit by a pitch a couple of times and the balls we put in play were hit very hard.”
Wayne County moved in front 7-6 in the fifth.
Aycock trotted home on Lassiter’s RBI double to left field. A double steal moved Lassiter and Smith, who walked, up to third and second base, respectively.
Mason Moffett knotted the game at 6-6 on an RBI sac fly that drove in Lassiter. Smith scored the go-ahead run moments later on a wild pitch.
Post 11 sealed the deal with three runs in the sixth.
“I liked how we moved a bunch of guys around and we had guys play in positions they’re not used to,” said Pate, whose team recorded 10 stolen bases. “I’m excited about the offensive side of what we can bring to the table.”
Lassiter finished 2-for-2 with three RBI.
McLean, Aycock, Woolard and Davis Albert each contributed one hit.
Wayne County used five pitchers — Gipson, Richard Noble, newcomers Sterling Bass and Jackson Jenkins, and Erik Rosas. Jenkins earned the win, while Rosas filed the save.
“All in all, a good win,” Pate said.
Wayne County (1-0 overall) improved to 15-4 in season openers since 2003 and travels to Pitt County today. First pitch is 7 p.m. at Pitt Community College.
