Maybe hitting isn’t the albatross that Kinston Post 43 manager Ronnie Battle feared it might be at the start of the American Legion baseball season.
Four games in and Post 43 has scored a combined 36 runs, including Saturday night’s 15-5 mercy-rule shortened thrashing of Jones County Post 154 at Kinston High’s Viking Field.
“Obviously we’ve been swinging the bats really well,” Battle said. “Even the game we lost (16-6 at Jacksonville Post 265 on Thursday), we were hitting line drives all over the field.”
Kinston hit a lot of line drives all over Viking Field as well. Post 43 battered three Jones pitchers for 14 hits and all but one were darts that left the infield.
Despite all the offensive fireworks, Post 43 (3-1) actually trailed Jones 4-1 heading into the bottom of the second. Sammy West’s two-run double drew Kinston a little closer before Post 154 tallied a solo marker in the top of the third.
Jones County did not score again.
A sacrifice fly by Grant Tyndall capped a three-run bottom of the third, gave Post 43 its first lead of the game, and, more importantly, opened the offensive floodgates.
Four hits, a pair of walks, and two wild pitches led to seven Post 43 runs in the fourth, followed by two more in the fifth for the final margin.
“We didn’t panic after we got behind early,” Battle said. “We settled down, got into a groove at the plate, and received some excellent pitching on top of that.”
With his team clinging to a 6-5 lead after three innings, Will Deters came on in relief of his Kinston High teammate Taishu McLawhorn and completely frustrated the Jones County lineup.
The right-hander surrendered just one hit and one walk in four innings and struck out five. He also faced the minimum 12 batters as Bradley Bennett, who singled in the sixth, was caught stealing, and Brad Baugus, who walked in the seventh, was erased on a game-ending double play.
“Will came in and calmed everything down,” Battle said. “He kept them off balance and shut them down until our offense got into gear.”
Nine different players reached the hit column for Post 43, led by Dylan Puchalski and Garrett Holland, who each collected three singles.
West added a double and four RBIs, while Matt Hinson added two hits and Wesley Melvin a pair of runs batted in.
Four of Post 154’s six hits came during a four-run second inning outburst. No player had more than one hit, although Bennett did knock in two runs.
For Jones coach Ricky Metts, the fact that his team lost was secondary compared to the way the defeat came about.
“We’ve got guys hurt, playing out of position, and we’re still trying to find the right combinations,” said Metts, whose team dropped to 1-3 on the season. “But tonight there were times when I thought we were lackadaisical and didn’t hustle. That is totally unacceptable.”
Notes: A huge error kick started Kinston’s three-run third inning. Jones first sacker Kyle Gaskins dropped a routine pop foul by Puchalski for what should have been the first out of the frame. Puchalski ended up getting on base, the first of three in a row and four total as Post 43 rallied from a 5-3 deficit. It was all downhill from there for Post 154. ... Another mistake played a part in Kinston’s seven-run fourth-inning eruption. VeQuain Joyner swung at a strike three in the dirt and advanced to first on the wild pitch. The out would have ended the inning with minimal damage, two runs, but Kinston came back to score five more and blow the game open. ... Post 43 hosts Elizabeth City Post 84 to open Area I East play at 4 p.m. today.
Jones Post 154 041 000 0—5 6 2
Kinston Post 43 123 720 x—15 14 1
Price, S. Baugus (3), Buck (3), Bennett (6) and Willis, B. Baugus (3), Villabono (4); McLawhorn, Deters (4) and Davis. W—Deters. L—Price.