Post 58 in driver's seat

EDENTON - Nash County Post 58's baseball team was slow and methodical - but it got the job done at Historic Hicks Field Tuesday night. It beat Edenton Post 40 17-5 in seven innings in Game 2 of the American Legion Area One East Division semifinals.

A win at Northern Nash tonight will put Post 58 in the finals.

Nash County kept two themes going Tuesday night - scoring in every inning, and winning via the 10-run run rule. And for the13th time in 15 outings, Post 58 scored in double figures.

Several of its players had exceptional outings at the home of not only the Edenton High School Aces, but the Edenton Steamers of the Coastal Plain League. They had to if they tallied 21 hits in just seven innings!

Rocky Mount High School's all-time RBI leader Ben Fish continued doing what he does best - knock in runs. He parlayed three singles and a double into a five-RBI evening. He also scored three times.

Fish and third baseman Mike Williams, who went 3-for-6 last night, had the distinction of coming to bat in five consecutive innings (Nos. 3-7). A rare deed indeed!

Though Xavier Macklin, hitting in the No. 3 spot, was exceptional at the plate going 4-for-5 with a double and four runs scored and strangely, he had no RBI.

Then two of the smallest Nash County players had the biggest blasts of the evening - both coming in the seventh.

Shortstop Wesley Joyner (2-for-4) led off the frame by lifting a high fly ball to left, just inside the foul pole, over the double-decker fence for a solo home run.

After consecutive singles by pinch hitters Gabe Brown and Tyler Clark, leadoff hitter and center fielder T.J. Taylor, who is about 5-foot-7 and 140 pounds (and I am being generous), slammed a line-drive 350-foot shot over the fence in right center for a three-run bomb. Taylor closed out the evening 3-for-6 with four RBI.

But the performance of the night came from pitcher Dillon Cockrell. He had shaky start in the first by giving up a leadoff home run to Post 40's Nikolai Simonson, followed by a single by Tyler Barrington.

But he really settled down from that point on - only allowing one more hit in his six innings of work. He walked just one batter and struck out 11.

The biggest concern for the Post 58 faithful is the status of catcher/pitcher Alex Pearce.

He was beaned twice in Game 1, and last night he was hit twice more - once in the ear hole of his batting helmet in the second - which could be heard all the way back in Rocky Mount! The second time was on the left wrist in the fourth, which was unbelievably questioned by the home plate umpire.

An appeal to the field umpire got Pearce first base, but he was in a lot pain and was pulled from the lineup for Clark. Ironcially, in his last at-bats, he was walked and hit with the bases loaded - giving him two RBI.

I gather X-rays will be taken Wednesday and we may know more about his status this evening.

UPDATE: I just learned that Pearce's wrist is bruised and not broken or fractured. He will be able to pitch Wednesday, but not bat.