Wayne County Advances To NC 2007 Legion Championship Game
August 12th, 2007 Posted in American Legion baseballWayne County Legion defeated Caldwell County Legion on Sunday to advance to the 2007 North Carolina American Legion Baseball Championship game against Cherryville Legion. We’ll post photo and video highlights on Sunday and Monday on our home page for the 2007 NC Legion baseball championship.
Caldwell County star pitcher Jimmy Messer started the game, despite finishing out last night’s game and looked like his usual sharp self, retiring the side in order in the first. Wayne County’s TJ Hinson matched Messer, setting down the first three Caldwell hitters in order. In the second, John Wooten drew a leadoff walk, Jay Rose doubled him to third, and then Wooten scored on a Tyler Ham ground out to give Wayne an early 1-0 lead.
Jackson Massey started the Wayne third with a bang – a big fly to extend Wayne’s lead to 2-0. Walker Gourley followed with a double and Garrett Davis quickly singled Gourley in to make it 3-0 before Messer dug in and retired the side. Caldwell County answered Massey’s homer with one of their own in the bottom of the third as Shane Clawson went deep to cut the Wayne lead to 3-1. Slugger Brad Chavis, who hit two home runs last night, followed the Clawson homer with a bid of his own, but got a bit under it and it died in the mitt of the Wayne outfielder on the warning track to end the inning.
The score stayed at 3-1 until the seventh as both Hinson and Messer were pitching well. Wayne County scored two big runs in the seventh, aided by a Messer throwing error on a Nolan Lancaster bunt single that allowed a run to score, and enabled Lancaster to go all the way to third, putting him in position to score on a passed ball later in the inning, extending the Wayne lead to 5-1. The seventh proved to be Messer’s final inning and Wayne’s Jay Rose greeted the Caldwell relief pitcher with solo home run in the eighth to make the score 6-1.
Hinson meanwhile continued to get all the big outs, pitching eight strong innings before yielding to Jay Rose to start the ninth. Rose, whom has pitched in every Wayne County game in the state playoffs, retired the Caldwell side in order to close the Wayne County 6-1 victory. Wayne County’s victory means they will face Cherryville Legion in a few minutes for the 2007 NC American Legion Championship. The pitching match up will likely be Wayne County’s Garrett Davis vs Cherryville’s Chris Henderson - both excellent pitchers.
The winner of Wayne County Legion vs Cherryville Legion will win the NC State Championship, and go on to represent NC in the American Legion Baseball Southeast Regionals in Albany, Georgia, starting on August 16th.
Our championship game coverage will be on our home page for the NC Legion baseball playoffs. As always, you can upload your photos and videos on the TeamCards linked there, and move any photo or video on the site to your personal FanCards, TeamCards, and StarCards.
[Where: Garner, NC]
