AHOSKIE – The ‘J’ in juniors for Ahoskie Post-102’s American Legion team may have to be changed to ‘juggernaut.’

This comes after a 9-1 win – their tenth of the season – over Pitt County (Farmville) Post-160’s junior team Wednesday night at Hertford County High School baseball field.

&uot;Wow,&uot; said coach David Ellis, shaking his head– and he did say it louder.

&uot;Best defense. Everybody played good, everybody hit the ball good and we got tough pitching on the mound,&uot; said a grinning Ellis afterward.

Brandon Warren went the distance in tossing a three-hitter and striking out eight batters. He also led the offensive attack driving in three runs. David Brackett went 2-for-2 driving in a pair and scoring twice, and Travis Ellis scored three runs and had a pair of game-saving catches in centerfield.

Ahoskie opened the scoring in the first inning as lead-off batter Ellis drew a walk, stole second, advanced to third when Edward Joyner beat out a ground ball, and scored on Brackett’s first RBI of the game – a solid shot to centerfield.  The only tough part of the inning was leaving the bases loaded, but it staked the home team to a 1-0 lead.

They came back to pick up another run in the bottom of the second stanza as Warren drew a walk and after a pair of seeing-eye singles, scored when Austin Cooke’s infield grounder was misplayed for an error, giving Ahoskie a 2-0 lead after two.

Pitt County trimmed the lead in half in the top of the third inning when, with runners on the corners, a throwing error by the catcher sailed into short right field and a run scored to make it 2-1, Ahoskie.

The third inning saw Ahoskie manufacture another run with sound fundamentals. This time Brackett drew the base-on-balls, advanced to third thanks to another pair of hits that didn’t make it out of the infield and came home on Warren’s deep sacrifice-fly to right for a 3-1 advantage.

Ahoskie came back to blow the game open in the bottom of the fourth inning when they sent nine batters to the plate, collected five hits, and scored five runs.

With one out, Cooke, Joyner and John Hunter all scored; then with the bases loaded, Warren ripped a double down the line that scored Brackett and Zeek Williams to push the score out to 8-1.

Pitt County mounted another threat in the top of the fifth as Warren got into a bit of trouble with a pair on and just one out. But he settled down, struck out one batter, and a troublesome looping fly-ball was hauled in by Ellis in short center-field to douse any rally.

Ellis came back to account for Ahoskie’s final run of the night when he singled, stole second and third and came home on Hunter’s sacrifice fly and an eight-run cushion at 9-1.

The win raised Ahoskie’s record to 10-5 overall and made them 3-2 in the conference.

&uot;I was impressed,&uot; said Ellis.  &uot;This team (Farmville) beat Northern Nash, and you take away our games with Northern Nash this year (1-3) and we’re 9-3.

&uot;More importantly,&uot; he added, &uot;this gets us right back in the conference race. This is the best we’ve played by far.&uot;

Ahoskie has moved their scheduled Friday away game with Rocky Mount Post 58 to a home double-header this coming Wednesday, June 25, at 7 p.m.  Before that contest they’ll play a twin-bill on Sunday in Wilson against the junior Legion team from Post-13.