Is the magic back?
Published 11:16 am Monday, July 11, 2016
MANTEO – Hoping to repeat their magic from 2014, Ahoskie’s Post 102 junior American Legion baseball team won their second-round game here Wednesday in the Area-1 playoffs with a 10-2 victory over the Albemarle Post 84 Wildcats.
It was two seasons ago that Ahoskie lost their first round game in the playoffs in Rocky Mount only to storm their way to the championship round from the loser’s bracket.
Evan Lassiter and Grant Little combined to go the distance, with Lassiter picking up the win. The Post 102 bats also came alive following Tuesday’s 6-5 squeaker loss at Coy Tillet Field to top-seed Bear Grass.
Hunter Mitchell fields a ground ball in an earlier junior American Legion baseball game. Mitchell had a hit and scored a run to help Ahoskie Post 102 stay alive in the Area-1 Junior Legion Tournament being played in Manteo. | 2nd Chance Productions / Andre Alfred
“We got great pitching from Evan and Grant and we hit the ball,” said Ahoskie coach Dave Ellis. “This was a good win for us to advance in this tournament.”
Albemarle picked up a run in the bottom of the first inning and led the contest 1-0 after one full inning of play.
Ahoskie then scored four runs in the top of the third inning. Frankie Reppy singled and was subbed for with pinch runner Gabriel Correa. Jordan Robinson was then hit by a pitch and Lassiter walked to load the bases. Little then smacked a two-run single, scoring Correa and Robinson. Bradley Edwards then had a run-scoring single that scored Lassiter, and Little came home on a wild pitch. The Wildcats couldn’t counter, and it was 4-1, Ahoskie, after three innings.
Post 102 added another run in the top of the fourth when Hunter Mitchell and Reppy opened with back-to-back singles before Trevor Lee clubbed an RBI double. That made the score 5-1, Post 102, after four innings.
In the fifth inning Ahoskie doubled their pleasure with five big runs scored in the frame. After Little singled and Edwards walked, both runners advanced on a wild pitch, and both came home on Edward Bradley’s two-run single. Steven Futrell then drove in another run, as did Zack Lassiter – both with RBI base-hits. Post 102 got its final run on an error and stood at 10-1 on the scoreboard after five.
Albemarle scored one more run in the bottom of the sixth inning to complete the eight-run Ahoskie win.
Ahoskie banged out a dozen hits with Little leading the way with three safeties. Edwards and Reppy had two hits each and Futrell, Lee, Bradley, Mitchell, and Zack Lassiter had one hit apiece,
Post 102 raised their record to 5-19 on the season, but lived to play another day. They took on the Cary Colts Thursday for the right to advance to the semi-finals, but the game was not completed by press-time.
