Kinston claims game one

Published 2:47 pm Thursday, July 2, 2009

KINSTON – Post 43 took the opening game of their Senior American Legion playoff series with Ahoskie Post 102 here Tuesday night.

Kinston took a 13-3 win over Ahoskie and now leads the best-of-five series one game to none.

Ahoskie opened the scoring with two runs in the top of the second stanza.

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Chad Gurganus reached on an error and then came around to score on a Josh Morris RBI-double to left-center field. Morris scored on a Kyle Hughes single to center to make it 2-0 in favor of Ahoskie.

Post 102 then pushed their lead to three in the top of the fourth inning.

Hughes doubled to right-center field and scored on a Zeek Williams RBI-single to center to give Ahoskie a 3-0 lead.

From there, however, the wheels came off for the Ahoskie team as Kinston scored 13 unanswered runs to take the win. Post 43 scored two runs in the bottom of the fifth and then two more in the sixth. They added three in the seventh to take a 7-3 lead.

In the top of the eighth inning, Gavin Mizelle walked, but was erased at second when Eli Spruill reached on a fielder’s choice. With one out, Gurganus singled to right and then after another out, Spruill stole third. Gurganus, however, was picked off at first to end the inning.

Kinston then plated six more runs in the bottom of the eighth to end the game.

Brent Bowen pitched six innings for Ahoskie while Dylan Ralph and Dakota Young also saw time on the mound.

Ahoskie had seven total hits led by two from Hughes. Aaron Hoggard, Mizelle, Gurganus, Morris and Williams each had one hit.

Post 102 hosted Kinston last night (Wednesday) and will travel back here tonight.