EDENTON – Ahoskie Post 102 held off a furious rally in the bottom of the ninth as they survived for a 12-11 Senior American Legion victory here Tuesday night.

&uot;Judd pitched seven strong innings for us to get the win,&uot; fourth-year Post 102 coach Randy Whitaker said. &uot;We were down early, but came back. Ryan homered and then Jacob had a three-run shot. Everybody hit the ball.

&uot;This was a good win,&uot; he added. &uot;We just have to keep our heads up and keep fighting.&uot;

Post 40 opened the scoring with one run in the bottom of the first on a Broc Sutton RBI-groundout that gave Edenton 1-0 lead.

Ahoskie rallied to take the lead with three runs in the top of the second stanza.

Austin Lawrence was hit by a pitch before Brandon Matthews walked. That set up a two-run triple by William Barmer. Barmer then scored on a Lance Thomas RBI-groundout to give Post 102 a 3-1 advantage.

Edenton took the lead back in the bottom of the third, scoring four runs. Three of those came on a Sutton three-run homer and the fourth on a Blake Proctor sacrifice fly that gave Post 40 a 5-3 edge.

Edenton added another run in the bottom of the fourth when a run scored on a wild pitch to give Post 40 a 6-3 lead.

Ahoskie cut into the advantage in the top of the fifth frame when Thomas singled to center, stole second and scored when Dusty Todd reached on an error. Edenton led 6-4 after five innings.

Post 102 deadlocked the score with a pair of runs in the top of the sixth inning.

Barmer doubled to right-centerfield and went to third on a Thomas infield single. Thomas went to second on a Jacob Harrell sacrifice bunt. Barmer and Thomas then scored on a Todd two-run double to leftfield.

Edenton took the lead back in the bottom of the sixth on a Graham Elmore sacrifice fly.

Ahoskie then plated five runs in the top of the seventh to take the lead for good.

Ryan Simmons led off the inning with a solo homerun. Lawrence then singled to left and a pitch hit Corey Castelloe. Lawrence scored the go-ahead run on a Thomas RBI-single to right that sent Castelloe to third. Harrell then hit a three-run bomb to left-centerfield to give Ahoskie an 11-7 lead.

The final run for Post 102 came in the top of the eighth when Simmons walked and went to third on a Lawrence groundout. He scored on a Matthews RBI-groundout to give Ahoskie a 12-7 lead.

Edenton plated four runs in the bottom of the ninth to make it close.

One run scored on a wild pitch, John Layton had an RBI-single, Elmore had an RBI-groundout and Sutton had a bases-loaded walk. With two outs and the bases loaded, a groundout ended the game.

Judd Whitehead pitched seven innings for the win, allowing seven runs. Jacob Bowen pitched one and one-third innings and Todd pitched the final two-thirds inning for the save.

Ahoskie had 13 hits on the day. They were led by Thomas and Todd with three hits each while Barmer and Simmons had two hits each.

Ahoskie is 2-7 overall and will play a doubleheader at home Friday against New Bern. The first game starts at 5 p.m.