GARNER — An 11-run loss to defending North Carolina American Legion baseball state champion Fuquay-Varina Post 116 Nationals back on May 29 certainly could have deflated Wilson Post 13 early in the season.
Instead, Wilson reeled off five straight wins, including a come-from-behind 7-4 victory in nine innings over Post 116 Nationals on Wednesday on the Garner Magnet High diamond behind some late-inning dramatics and air-tight relief pitching.
Post 13, now 6-1, scored four runs in the top of the seventh inning to tie the score and send it into extra innings. After pushing in a run, Wilson first baseman Brady Jenkins popped the cork with a two-run home run to right field.
Three Post 13 relievers — Landon Coleman, Reid Willoughby and Tyson Foster — held Fuquay-Varina (6-2) to one hit and no runs over the last 5 2/3 innings following starter Carter Batts. Foster, a rising senior at Hunt High, got the win after taking the mound for the bottom of the eight inning and firing two hitless innings, walking one and striking out three.
In the first meeting with Post 116, Wilson pitchers walked 10 batters and hit two more. On Wednesday, Post 13 hurlers totaled four walks and didn’t hit any batters. After making three errors in the first game, Wilson didn’t commit a miscue in the rematch while the Nationals’ five errors almost all led to Post 13’s two big innings.
Post 13 gets three days off before heading to Wilmington on Sunday to for a rematch with Post 10, which lost 2-0 to Post 13 at Beddingfield High on June 1 in the second victory of Wilson’s streak.
“We played some really tough games over the last week and a half and we have come out on the better side of it,” said Post 13 head coach Matt Ballance. “I’m super pleased with where we are right now collectively as a group. We need a couple of days rest, arms need some rest, bodies need some rest, so, looking forward to the break, but ultimately, we’ve still got work to do.”
For the first six innings Wednesday, Post 13 couldn’t crack Fuquay-Varina starter Charleston Sauls, the victor in the first meeting at Fleming Stadiu. Sauls gave up three hits and walked two before Post 116 head coach Chris Cook pulled him.
“Once we chased him out, I said, ‘All right, here’s a shot,’” said Ballance.
Sauls’ replacement, W. Gilbert, retired two of the first three batters he faced with Peyton Clay drawing a one-out walk. Then it all fell apart for Fuquay-Varina.
Four walks, two errors, a hit batter and a wild pitch later, Wilson had tied the score.
Post 13 starting pitcher Carter Batts took a few lumps in his 3 1/3 innings of work, but considering that Fuquay-Varina had won 17-6 in five innings a week earlier, a 4-0 deficit wasn’t too bad,
“That’s the luxury of having 11 or 12 arms,” Ballance said. “That’s what I’ve told all of our starters: Give us four innings. Give us four innings and we’ll handle the back side for you.”
Batts was tagged for a solo homer by Aiden Carroll in the second inning and another by T. Daniels to lead off the third. Post 116 added two more runs in the third on an RBI triple by Matthew Vannoy, who scored on a wild pitch.
Post 116 loaded the bases with one out in the fourth against Batts, who exited in favor of Coleman, his D.H. Conley High teammate. Coleman retired all five batters he faced before Reid Willoughby took over in the sixth and retired six of the seven batters he faced, including striking out the side in the bottom of seventh — a turn at-bat the Nationals didn’t expect to take.
“As soon as it got tied and Reid Willougby got us through the seventh, I knew that was our ballgame to win,” Ballance said.
Foster first had to negotiate around a leadoff single by Harris Craven and then a base on balls with one out in the eighth. In the top of the ninth, Post 116’s defense failed it again. The first two Post 13 batters, center fielder Adyn Gooding and designated hitter Nick Worrell, reached on errors before Gooding gave Wilson the lead when he raced home on Jake Flowers’ groundout.
Shortstop J.D. Graziani then delivered a single on which Worrell attempted to score but was cut down at the plate for the second out. Jenkins then launched a 3-2 pitch from Bunch, the fourth Fuquay-Varina hurler, over the right-center field wall for his first homer this summer and two huge insurance runs.
Foster then set the Nationals down in order in the bottom of the ninth to nail down the win.
Graziani led Post 13 with a 2-for-4 showing while Flowers and outfielder Dom Robbins had the other hits for Wilson. Bunch and Carroll each rapped a pair of hits for Post 116.
Post 13 will be off for Wilson County Schools graduation Saturday but resume Sunday with the trip to Wilmington. The next home game for Wilosn is Friday, June 14, against Wake Forest Post 187 on the Beddingfield High diamond.
Score by innings:
Post 13 000 000 403 — 7
Post 116 013 000 000 — 4
W-Tyson Foster (1-0) 2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 3 SO. L-Nathan Bunch 2 1/3 IP, 2 H, 3 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 1 SO.
LEADING HITTERS — Wilson: J.D. Graziani 2-4, R; Brady Jenkins 1-4, HR, 2 RBIs; Jake Flowers 1-5, RBI; Dom Robbins 1-3, R. Fuquay-Varina: Matthew Vannoy 1-3, 3B, R, RBI; Nathan Bunch 2-4, 2B; T Daniels 1-3, HR, RBI; Aiden Carroll 2-3, 2B, R, RBI.
