ELIZABETH CITY – Ahoskie Post 102 downed the Albemarle Wildcats of Elizabeth City Post 84, 13-2, here Monday night and with the win wrapped up the Area-One East Junior American Legion baseball regular-season championship.

It was the Ahoskie juniors’ fourth title in the last five years.

Post 102 opened the scoring with three runs in the top of the first inning.  Tyler Jones scored on a fielder’s choice.  Teammates Jordan Brinkley and Evan Lassiter both followed, crossing the plate on separate passed balls to give the visitors a 3-0 lead after a half-inning of baseball.

Ahoskie picked up another run in the top of the second inning on a Jarrett Harrell RBI double to score Tyler Jones for a 4-0 lead after an inning-and-a-half.

Elizabeth City finally got on the scoreboard with a run scored in the bottom of the second and it was 4-1, Ahoskie, after two complete innings of play.

Another Ahoskie run crossed the plate in the top of the third inning as Gage Riddick scored on an error for a four-run cushion for Post 102 and a count of 5-1 after three innings.

Ahoskie broke the game wide open in the top of the fourth and put it out of reach for Albemarle with five more runs in the top of the fourth.  Jake Brown drove in one run with an RBI double while Jaycob Damo drove in another run with a single.  Riddick scored on a passed ball and Braxton Newsome and Jacob Doughtie both touched the dish compliments of a pair of Elizabeth City errors.  Ahoskie then had a whopping 10-1 lead after three-and-a-half innings of baseball.

Post 102’s final three runs came in the top of the sixth inning to give Ahoskie a 13-1 lead.  Jones had an RBI single, Newsome scored on an error and Brown had a sacrifice fly to plate the final Ahoskie run of the game.

Elizabeth City scored one more run in the bottom of the sixth to lose by eleven runs, but by then Ahoskie was well on its way to celebrating another junior’s area championship.

Ahoskie started the summer campaign 2-9 but won seven of their final eight games to finish out the regular season.

Harrell pitched three innings for the win for Post 102.  Parker Cline also pitched with two innings on the hill while Riddick did the mop-up work for the final three outs.

Ahoskie had 11 hits.  Jones, Harrell, and Doughtie had two hits apiece while Brinkley, Damo, Cline, Brown, and Riddick had one hit each.

“Even though this was a blowout, all three pitchers pitched great,” said first-year Ahoskie coach Jacob Harrell. “They threw strikes and did real well on just two days rest.

“We swung the bats well with 11 hits and we had great execution,” he added.  “I think we’ve put together a good team and we’re happy to win the conference title and now we look forward to the playoffs.”

Post 102’s Tuesday doubleheader with Albemarle – both non-conference games – was not played, but both forfeits count in the final season standings.

Ahoskie is 9-10 and 5-3 in league play to end the regular season.  They will begin the junior Legion playoffs Saturday in Rocky Mount as the top seed from Area-One East.