KINSTON – A late RBI in the bottom of the eighth inning proved to be the difference, painfully, for Post 102’s senior American Legion baseball team as it ended Ahoskie’s post-season 8-7 at the hands of Kinston after just two games.

The loss in the best-of-three series sweep gave Post 43 a ticket to the second round where they will face Pitt County Post 39 later this week.

Ahoskie finishes the season at 8-11.

Kinston opened the scoring by punching out six big runs off Ahoskie starter Nick Horvath in the bottom of the first. Horvath did not last through the first inning as Post 43 took a 6-0 lead after just one inning before a crowd at historic Grainger Stadium.

Ahoskie broke through in the top of the third inning. Tyler Jones singled, Jarrett Harrell and Parker Cline walked to load the bases. Jones then scored on Horvath’s sacrifice fly to make it a 6-1 game, Kinston, after three innings.

Post 102 crept closer with three runs in the top of the fourth. Matthew Weaver got a base hit and stole second base. Weaver then scored on an error when D.J. Smith reached thanks to a bunt single. Michael Scott then singled to move Smith to third base, where he would later score on a wild pitch. Scott then scored later on Harrell’s RBI groundout. Ahoskie had cut Kinston’s lead down to just two runs, 6-4 after four.

Kinston came back and padded their lead with another run in the bottom of the sixth inning for a 7-4 bulge.

Ahoskie refused to yield as Post 102 scored three runs in the top of the eighth inning. Weaver again opened with a single and stole second. Smith followed with another base-hit to get two runners on base. Weaver would score on a run-scoring groundout by Scott, and Smith scored on an RBI single by Jones. Jones later stole third and was able to come home on the play when Kinston blew a rundown attempt. The run had knotted the score at 7-7 and Post 102 was six outs away from sending the game back to Ahoskie for a pivotal Game-3 on Thursday.

But fate did not smile, as Kinston was able to get a run-scoring single in the bottom of the eighth to break the deadlock and give Post 43 a one-run lead, 8-7.

Ahoskie went down in order in the top of the ninth, the last two by strikeouts, and saw their season slip away.

Horvath, Cline, Alex Harmon, and Jones all pitched for Post 102.

Ahoskie had a dozen hits, four off the bat of Smith. Jones and Weaver had two hits apiece while Slade Cowan, Horvath, Cline, and Scott had one hit each.