Wayne County Post 11’s Wyatt Lassiter, left, hands his gloves to first base coach Tyler Daniels during a recent game. Lassiter collected two hits and two RBI, and stole two bases during a 5-0 conquest of Kinston on Tuesday evening in their best-of-three “play-in” series for a berth in the senior American Legion state tournament. (Rudy Coggins|mountolivetribune.com)
Gabe Adams turned in a masterful pitching performance Tuesday evening.
The rising senior at North Johnston threw a two-hit shutout as Wayne County Post 11 prevailed 5-0 over Kinston Post 43 in game one of their “play-in” series for a trip to the senior American Legion state baseball tournament.
Wayne County (29-6 overall) can secure its second appearance in the eight-team event in the past three years with a victory at Kinston today. Game time is 7 p.m.
Adams faced two batters over the minimum for a seven-inning game. The right-hander logged nine strikeouts in the scorebook, and coaxed Post 43 into nine groundouts and three flyouts.
During his 84-pitch outing, Adams threw 61 strikes and did not walk a batter.
“He was obviously lights out, threw a ton of strikes,” WC Post 11 head coach Adam Pate said. “He relied on his fastball, which was electric. His slider was filthy, too, so he had all of his stuff working. He gave us a good chance to win. Offensively, we struggled early, but then we got rolling.”
Scoreless through 4 1/2 innings, Wayne County erased that nagging bagel on the scoreboard in the fifth.
Cameron Aycock ignited a three-run uprising with a lead-off walk. He advanced to third on Mason Moffett’s single. Davis Albert legged out an infield bunt to juice the bases for Wyatt Lassiter.
A rising junior at Rosewood, Lassiter laced a two-RBI single up the middle to score Aycock and Moffett. Albert moved into scoring position on the play and trotted home on Lane McLean’s sacrifice fly to right field.
Post 11 extended its lead in the sixth.
Nate Smith connected on a lead-off double to center field and raced home on Aycock’s double to left field. Aycock took third on Moffett’s base knock and scored the game’s final run on a passed ball.
Lassiter ended the night 2-for-4 with two RBI and two stolen bases. He boosted his team-leading RBI total to 28. Moffett provided two hits and trails Lassiter by one RBI this season.
Albert, Braeden Collins, Smith and Aycock concluded the night with one hit apiece. Already the program’s newly-minted, single-season base thief, Aycock notched his 43rd stolen base.
Wayne County snapped a three-game skid. Post 11 improved to 84-34 all-time against Post 43.
“Really happy to see the guys back on the winning side of things,” Pate said. “Hopefully, we can take care of business tonight and get to the state tournament.”
