Legion Post 102 Seniors drop season opener

Published 10:28 am Thursday, June 1, 2017

FARMVILLE – Farmville Post-151 downed Ahoskie Post-102 by a score of 15-12 here Tuesday night in the senior American Legion baseball opening game for both teams.

Ahoskie opened the scoring with two runs in the top of the first inning. Jarrett Harrell had an RBI single and the other Ahoskie run scored on a double-play groundout. Ahoskie led 2-0 after the first inning of play.

Post-102 picked up two more runs in the top of the third on a D.J. Smith solo home run and a Slade Cowan RBI groundout; upping their lead to 4-0 after two-and-a-half innings of baseball.

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Farmville grabbed the lead with six runs in the bottom of the third for a 6-4 lead after three innings.

Ahoskie came back to tie it at 6-all with a pair of runs in the top of the fourth on a Smith RBI double and a Ron Olsen sacrifice fly that made it 6-6.

Farmville would answer in the home half of the fourth with four more runs and a 10-6 lead after four complete.

Ahoskie crept closer with a run in the top of the fifth inning as Cowan scored on an error, but Farmville scored themselves in the bottom of the fifth to lead it 11-7 after five.

Jordan Brinkley picked up an RBI base-hit in the top of the sixth inning, good enough to get Post-102 within three, before Farmville got the run back in the bottom of the sixth and bumped their bulge back up to four runs at 12-8 after six innings.

In the top of the seventh, Ahoskie had its best inning of the game as they batted around and put four runs up on the board to tie the game. Scoop Hoggard got a run in with an RBI single and the other runs came in thanks to a Smith sacrifice fly, an Olsen RBI single, and then Olsen scoring again on an error to leave things all-square headed to the bottom of the seventh.

Farmville scored three runs in the bottom of the seventh for a three-run 15-12 lead, and that was the final score after no one scored again in the final inning-and-a-half.

Ahoskie used four pitchers. Olsen started and pitched three innings. Cowan went two innings, Hoggard pitched one, and Harrell threw the final two innings and was hit with the loss.

For Ahoskie’s 17 hits, Smith had a 5-for-5 night, including a home run, three doubles, and three runs-batted-in. Olsen and Harrell were both 3-for-5, while Hoggard was 2-for-5 and Matthew Weaver was 1-for-4 with a double. Cowan, Brinkley, and Nathan Rowe individually had the other Post-102 hits.

Ahoskie falls to 0-1 and same result in conference play. Post-102 will have its home opener this Sunday in the form of a doubleheader with Pitt County Post-39 beginning at 3 p.m. at Hertford County High School Field.